





?! 










, ■ ;• 




J! 1 









^ 




A i\ 






^ 






THE 



Fortieth Congress 






UNITED STATES : 



HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 



By WILLIAM H. BARNES, 

AUTHOR OF TirK "HISTOHT OF THE TUir.TY-NINTII CONOR! 



titli portraits on ^tccl by (Ocoigc (!*. fjlrittt. 



VOLUME I. 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY GEORGE E. PERINE, 

in NASSAU STREET. 
1869. 






ENTERED ACCORDING To ACT OF CoXC.KESS, IN THE YEAR ISffil, EY 

WILLIAM II. BARNES and GEORGE E. PERIXE, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New Yohk. 



stereotyped by printed RT 

DENNIS BRO'S A CO., JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, 

AUBURN, N. Y. 10 A IS JACOB ST., N. Y. 



PREFACE. 



«ay^ 




-JfflS book describes and illustrates the men composing the 
: fj| gr, atest legislative body in the world. No other national 
a em blj is convened from sucb extended territory, rep- 
resents a constituency at once so numerous intelligent, and free, 

or possesses powers so immense and so well denned. 

This particular Congress will not suffer in comparison with any of 
its predecessors. It exhibits as much practical statesmanship, sound 
wisdom, and effective eloquence, as have been displayed by the Legis 
lative department in any period of American history. There is a 
popular error which regards the Con-res. of thirty years ago as supe- 
rior to that of the present. With a propensity to revere antiquity, 
we look backward through a golden haze which magnifies the States- 
men of those times. Measured accurately by the standard which 
now prevails, they lose their gigantic proportion,. The subjects with 
which they had to deal were insignificant compared with those which 
demand the attention of living Statesmen. So universal has been 
the spread of intelligence, that men are found in every Congressional 
Distriet as wise on questions of national policy as the most conspic- 
uous Statesmen of the last generation. 

It has not been the author's task to single out " Eminent Ameri- 
cans," or distinguished " Men of the Times"— this has been the work 
,.f the people. They selected from thirty millions those whom they 
regarded as best fitted for their highest Legislative labors, and, in so 
doing, have designated those most worthy to be described by the 
author and the artist. 

These biographies reveal the fact that in almost every instance 
■■\ 



2 PREFACE. 

their subjects were the architects of their own fortunes. In youth 
they walked the stony path of poverty, and have arisen to eminence 
by energy and talent. 

We have given the personal history of eaeli as minutely as the 
material within our reach, and the space at our disposal would admit. 
We have given plain, unvarnished narratives, unbiased by political 
attractions or repulsions. It must be confessed, however, that in 
every instance we have been conscious of a feeling of friendliness, 
without which the task of the biographer would be ungracious. 

Much of recent history may be found in the following pages of 
1 ii graphy. Concise war-histories of the States of Xew York, Illinois, 
Indiana, and Michigan, may be found in the sketches of the late 
Governors of those States now in Congress. In one of the sketches, 
Chief-Justice Chase gives an interesting history of the origin of the 
financial system made necessary by the war. Quotations from 
speeches are not in all cases the finest passages from the best efforts 
of their authors, but are often made in view of their pertinency to sub- 
jects of current legislation. The sketches generally end abruptly, 
and are necessarily incomplete, from the fact that their subjects, with 
. ' gle exception, are still living, to perforin other distinguished and 
useful sen i 

The public are assured that the portraits are as accurate as they 
can be made by the combined arts of photography and engraving. 
In every instance the portraits have been pronounced, by the personal 
friends of the subjects, as strikingly accurate. Kb American booi 
has ever contained finer portraits, and no volume ever published has 
had a larger number. 

The second volume will appear so soon as the artistic and typo- 
graphical work can be completed. 

Xew Yobk, February, 1869. 



BIOGRAPHIES AM' PORTRAITS. 



A I LISON, WILLIAM B 
. ASHLEY, JAMES M., 

... 
BEN'GD \M. JOHN A.. 

... 
:.;. AUSTIN,. 
BOYER, BENJAMIN M., 

ks, -i \mi;s. 

BEOOMALL, JOHN M . .. 
. BU< K 1> K., 

KLAND, RALPH r., 
i LRY, SAMUEL F., 

DELL, ALEXANDER G., 
IDLER, ZACHARIAH, 
CHANLEK, JOHN W . 
IKE, SIDNEY, 
. CORNELIUS, 
- ( OLFAX, SCHUYLER, 
i I iNNESS, JOHN, 
, iRBETT, HENRY W., 

ELL, THOM ^S, 
CRAGIN, AARON II.. 
( ULLOM, SHELBY M., 
DRAKE, CHARLES D.. 
DONNELLY, IGNATIUS. 
t-DOOLITTLE. JAMES R., 
DRIGGS, JOHN F„ 
BG< iLESTON, BENJ AMLX. 
FERRY, THOMAS W.. 
t-fESSEXDEX. WILLIAM P., 
^eARFIELD. JAMES A., 

| HARLAN, JAMES 

.'.'KICKS. THOMAS A., 
HOOPER, SAMUEL, 
BUBBAK0, CHESTER D.. 
HULBURD, I \1.\TN T., 



BIOGRAPHIES AND PORTRAITS 



INGERSOLL, EBON C, 
JENCKES, THOMAS A., 
JOHNSON, J VMF.s A., 
JOHNSON, EEVERDY, ... 
.11 lid. NORMAN B.,.. 
JULIAN, GEORGE W., 
KELLEY, WILLIAM D.. 
LAWRENCE, GEORGE V. 
LAWRENCE, WILLIAM. 

LYNCH, JOHN 

SIALLORY, TJll't S, 
MAYNARD, HORACE, ... 
Mi CL1 EG, JOSEPH W., 

MU.LEi;. GEORGE F 

MORGAN, EDWIN D., 
MORRELL, DANIEL J., 
MYERS, LEONARD, .. 
NEWCOMB, CARMAN A., 
NICHOLSON, JOHN A., 

ITTERSON, JAMES W., 
I'll LLPS, CHARLES E.. 
PIKE, FREDERICK A., 
PILE. WILLIAM: A.. 
POMEROY, SAMUEL C, . 
ROBERTSON, WILLIAM. II.. 
ROBINSON, WILLIAM E., 
ROSS, LEWIS W.. 
SCHENCK, ROBERT C, 
Si OFEELD, GI.ENNI W., 
SPALDING, RUFUS V.. .. 
STEVENS, THADDEUS, 
STOKES, WILLIAM B., 
SI MXER, CHARLES, 

tii win:. JOHN M., ... 

VAX HORN, ROBERT T.. 
WADE, BENJAMIN F., .. 
WASHBURN. HENRY D., . 
WELKER, MARTIN, 
WILLEV, WAITMAN T„ . 
WILSON, JAMES F., ... 
WILSON, JOHN T., 
WOOD, FERNANDO, 
WOODW \LI>. GEORGE \\\. 
YATES, RICHARD, 



THE FORTIETH CONGKESS. 




gHE Fortieth Congress ranks among the most remarkable 
legislative bodies of ancient or modern times. The men 
who composed it, the emergencies in which it was placed, 
and the measures which it enacted, till contribute to it- distinction. 
It must ever occupy a high historical ] x >si t i< >n by reason of its achieve- 
ments in completing the work of Reconstruction begun by its prede 
cessor, and the great struggle wbich it maintained with the Execu- 
tive branch of the Government. 

The Tliirty-ninth. Congress closed its labors and its existence at 
noon, on the 4th of March, 1867. At the same hour, in accordance 
with a recently enacted law, the Fortieth Congress convened, and pro- 
ceeded to organize for business. So large a proportion of the members 
had been re-elected, that the new Congress formed essentially the same 
body as its predecessor. The membership, however, was not com- 
plete, since the States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, and Nebraska, had not 
yet held their elections, and were not represented in the House. 
The States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas were 
unrepresented, by reason of their failure hitherto to comply with the 
terms of reconstruction. 

Before the House entered upon the regular routine of business, the 
Democratic members took occasion to enter their " most solemn pro- 
test against the organization of the House, until the absent States 
should be more fully represented."' 

The Senate was called to order by Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, who 
had been elected its President pro temptm before the close of the 



g THE FORTIETH CONGRESS 

previous Congress. The House of Representatives was organized by 
the election to the speakership of Hon. Schuyler Colfax, now for the 
third time the recipient of that high honor. 

Congress at once addressed itself to the duty of perfecting the 
work of Reconstruction. The bill which had been passed over the 
President's veto, March 2d, was incomplete in not having all the pro- 
visions necessary for carrying it into effect in accordance with the 
purposes of its framers. 

Supplementary Reconstruction bills were proposed by Mr. Wilson 
in the House, and Mr. Trumbull in the Senate. The best features of 
both having been combined and fully discussed, the perfected bill 
was finally passed over the President's veto on the 23d of March. 
In this supplementary bill, directions were given for the due registra- 
tion of voters, the method of conducting elections, and the mode of 
calling conventions. 

Before the close of the preceding Congress, a conviction had taken 
p. i session of many minds that the President, in his career of opposi- 
tion to the legislative branch of the Government, had been guilty of 
crimes and misdemeanors which laid him liable to impeachment. 
( >n the 7th of January, 1S67, Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, offered a resolu- 
tion, which passed by a vote of 108 to 38, instructing the Judiciary 
Committee to "inquire into the official conduct of Andrew John- 
son," and report whether he had been guilty of " high crimes and 
misdemeanors, requiring the interposition of the Constitutional 
power of the House." The Committee to which this question was 
referred, was unable to complete its investigations before the close of 
the Thirty-ninth Congress, and the undetermined question of im- 
peachment was handed over to the discussion and action of the 
Fortieth Congress. In the first session of this Congress its Judiciary 
Committee was charged with the duty of continuing the investiga- 
tions, with instructions to report at the second session. Congress ad- 
journed on the 30th of March, making provision for re-assembling 
on the 3d of July, if the exigencies of Reconstruction or the con- 
duct of the President should make a meeting necessary. 



THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 3 

The President manifested extreme unwillingness to execute the 
Keconstruction laws. Ee was sustained in his position of hostility 
to Congress by the opinion of his Attorney-General, which jus- 
tified him in disregarding the laws recently enacted iU- the go^ 
ernment of the Rebel State. Alarmed by this attitude of the Pres 
ident and his subordinate, Congress re-assembled in full force on 
the 3d of July, prepared to meet the exigencies of the hour. •• The 
peculiar views," said Mr. Howard in the Senate, " taken by the At- 
torney-General of the [Jnited States of the reconstruction arts ,,f 
Congress, and the apprehension of the members of this body, at least 
the majority, that the President of the United States, in the execu 
tion of those acts, mayor will be governed by the conclusions to 
which his legal advisers have arrived, have doubtless been the great 
causes tor the re-assembling <■!' Congress." 

An additional Reconstruction act was passed over the President's 
veto on the 19th of July. A practical feature of this hill, which 
distinguished it from previous acts, was a provision devolving 
many of the details of the execution of the laws upon the General 
of the Army, in whose abilities and integrity Congress and the 
country placed full reliance. That nothing might be left undone to 
aid in the full restoration of the South, Congress appropriated one 
million six hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to defray the 
necessary expenses of Reconstruction. 

The President, in a communication relating to the cost of carrying 
out the provisions of the Reconstruction bills, stated that if the Fed- 
eral Government should abolish the existing State governments of the 
ten States, the United States would be justly responsible for the 
debts incurred by those States for other purposes than in aid of the 
rebellion; those debts amounted to at least $100,000,000. He 
thought it worthy the consideration of Congress whether the as- 
sumption of so great an obligation would not seriously impair the 
national credit ; whether, on the other hand, " the refusal of Con- 
gress to guarantee the payment of the debts of those States, after 
having displaced or abolished their State governments, would not bo 





4 THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 

viewed as a violation of good faith, and a repudiation by the Na- 
tional Legislature of liabilities which those States had jointly and le- 
gally incurred. The House, by a vote of 100 to 18, resolved that this 
intimation of the liability of the United States for those debts, " is 
at war with the principles of international law, a deliberate stab 
at the national credit, abhorrent to every sentiment of loyalty, 
and well-pleasing only to the traitors by whose agency alone the 
Governments of said States were overthrown."' 

When the Fortieth Congress convened for its second session on the 
21st of November, 1867, its first important business was to hear a 
report from the Committee charged with the work of investigating 
the conduct of the President, with a view to his impeachment. On 
the 25th of November, Mr. Boutwell presented to the House the re- 
port of that Committee, recommending that Andrew Johnson be 
impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. On the same day, a 
minority of the Committee presented a dissenting report recommend- 
ing that the whole subject be laid on the table, and that the Com- 
mittee be discharged. Both reports were ordered to be printed, and 
the subject was made the special order for "Wednesday, the 4th of 
December. On that day the subject was resumed, and after a dis- 
cussion of three days, was determined against impeachment, fifty- 
seven voting in the affirmative, and one hundred and eight in the 
negative. Of those voting in the negative, thirty-nine were Demo- 
crats, and sixty-nine were Republicans. The "overt act "was yet 
to be committed which would consolidate the Republicans to form the 
Constitutional two-thirds required for the impeachment of the Presi- 
dent. 

The character of Mr. Johnson's message, delivered to Congress on 
the 3d of December, was such as to indicate his unmitigated hostility 
to Congress, and was calculated to fan the unhappy strife between 
the co-ordinate branches of the Government. There had been some 
hope that Mr. Johnson, taught by observation and experience that 
the Congressional plan of reconstruction was that upon which the 
country had determined, would relax his opposition, and apply lum- 

10 



THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. ,j 

self to the duty of executing the laws. His December message dis- 
pelled tins hope. From the moment this paper was made public, 

it was evident that a tiercer conflict was impending between the Leg- 
islative and Executive branches of the Government. 

On the 12th of December, President Johnson transmitted to the 
Senate a communication setting forth his reasons for suspending Mr. 
Stanton from the exercise of the functions of Secretary of War. 
The genera] ground upon which Mr. Johnson justified his suspi 
of Mr. Stanton, was, that upon grave and important questions the 
views of the Secretary of War differed from those of the President. 
Mr. Johnson, in the case of the Secretary of War. did uot admit that 
In- was bound by the Tenure of Office Act. siuce before he had 
vetoed it. every member of his Cabinet, including Mr. Stanton, had 
agreed that it was unconstitutional. So soon as it had been discov- 
ered that the differences of policy could not be reconciled, I 
members of the Cabinet who did not coincide with the President, 
save Mr. Stanton, had resigned. By Mr. Stanton's continuance in 
office, "that unity of opinion which, upon great questions of public 
policy or administration, is so essential to the Executive, was gone." 
Since Mr. Stanton would not resign to produce this desired unitv, 
Mr. Johnson had been induced to resort to his suspension. 

This message was referred to the Military Committee of the Senate, 
a majority of whom, on the 8th of January, presented an elaborate re- 
port controverting the statements and assumptions of the President. 
The design of the Tenure of Office Art was to prevent the President 
from making any removals except for mental or moral incapacity, or 
for some legal disqualification ; and then, facts must be proved prior 
to removals. The constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Bill was 
maintained. The President had himself recognized it by his action 
in every case. The Report declared that if the purposes of Mr. 
Johnson, for which he required the unanimous support of his Cabinet, 
had been carried out, " the plain intention of Congress in regard to 
reconstruction in rebel States would have been defeated." The 
Military Committee said of Mr. Johnson, that " his whole course of 

it 



6 THE FORTIETH COXORESS. 

conduct was notoriously in open and violent antagonism to the will 
of the nation as expressed by the two Houses of Congress. Mr. 
Stanton, on the other hand, had favored the execution of these laws. 
He had good reason to believe, and did believe, that if he resigned his 
post, Mr. Johnson would fill the vacancy by the appointment of some 
person in accord with himself in his plans of obstruction and resist- 
ance to the will of Congress." With reference to the statement by 
the President that Mr. Stanton had considered the Tenure of Office 
Bill unconstitutional, and was opposed to its becoming a law, it was 
said in the report, "It does not follow because a public officer has 
entertained such an opinion of a proposed measure, he is to cany his 
notions so far as to treat it as void when formally enacted into a law 
by a two-thirds vote of each House of Congress." The Committee 
eulogized Mr. Stanton's conduct in refusing to resign, declaring 
that " in so doing he consulted both his own duty and the best inter- 
ests of the country." They recommended the passage of a Resolu- 
tion by the Senate non-concurring in the suspension of Mr. Stanton. 
The resolution was adopted by a majority of thirty-five to six. In 
consequence of this action of the Senate, General Grant ceased to 
exercise the functions of Secretary of War ml Jut, rim, and Mr. Stan- 
ton resumed the duties of his office. 

General Grant incurred the displeasure of the President because lie 
did not resign the Secretaryship into his hands, that he might ap- 
point another, who would prevent Mr. Stanton from resuming the 
office. The voluminous correspondence which followed, attracted 
much attention, and revealed in a clear light the characters of the 
two distinguished disputants. The letters of the President showed 
that it was his determination to control the Department of War. 
despite the Tenure of Office Act and the will of the Senate. 

In view of the state of things brought to light in this correspond- 
ence, Mr. Stevens, on the 13th of February, proposed to the House 
Committee on Reconstruction, a resolution to impeach the President 
for high crimes and misdemeanors. The resolution was laid on the 
table, Messrs. Bingham, Paine, Beaman, Brooks, and Beck, voting in 



THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 7 

the affirmative, and Stevens, Boutwell, and Farnsworth, in the neg- 
ative. 

On the twenty-first of February, the President issued an order to 
Mr. Stanton, removing him from the office of Secretary of War, di- 
recting him to surrender all books, papers, and public property of 
the Department to < reneral Lorenzo Thomas, whom he had appointed 
Secretary of War ml lot, run. General Thomas immediately pre- 
sented himself at the War Department and demanded possession. 
Mr. Stanton refused to surrender the office, and ordered General 
Thomas to proceed to the apartment which belonged to him as Ad 
jutant-General. This order was not obeyed. Mr. Stanton re- 
mained in possession <A' the War Department, and continued to dis- 
charge the functions of the office. At the same time General 
Thomas was recognized as Secretary by the President, and in that 
capacity attended the meetings of the Cabinet. 

On the 22d of February, Mr. Stevens, as Chairman of the Eouse 
Committee on Reconstruction, presented a brief report, presenting 
the fact of the attempted removal of Mr. Stanton by the President, 
and recommending the passage of a resolution that Andrew Johnson 
be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. An earnest de- 
bate ensued, which was closed with a speech written by Mr. Stevens, 
but read by the Clerk of the House. The veteran Chairman of the 
Committee and former leader of the House, with a mind still vigor- 
ous, found his physical strength insufficient for personal participation 
in debate. After two days 1 discussion, on the 24th of February, the 
Resolution to impeach the President passed the House by a vote of 
one hundred and twenty-six to forty-seven. 

The House also appointed a committee to prepare Articles of Im- 
peachment, consisting of seven members : Messrs. Boutwell, Stevens, 
Bingham, Wilson, Logan, Julian, and Ward. A committee of two 
members, Messrs. Stevens and Boutwell, was appointed to notify the 
Senate of the action of the House — a duty which was performed on 
the following day. Thereupon the Senate, by a unanimous vote, 
resolved that the message from the House should be referred to a com- 

13 



8 THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 

mittee of seven, to be appointed by the chair. This committee sub- 
sequently made a rep. irt, laying down the rules of procedure to be 
observed in the trial. 

On the 29th of February, Articles of Impeachment were presented 
to the House by the Committee which had been charged with that 
duty. After slight modification, these, with two additional articles, 
were adopted, on the 4th of March. The votes on the different 
articles slightly varied, the average being 12.") yeas to 40 nays. The 
House then elected the following members to be Managers to conduct 
the Impeachment before the Senate : Messrs. Bingham, Boutwell, 
Wilson, Butler, Williams, Logan, and Stevens. 

The Democratic members abstained from voting in the election of 
Managers. They entered a formal protest against the whole course 
of proceedings involved in the impeachment of the President. 
While taking this step, they claimed to represent, " directly or in prin- 
ciples, more than one-half of the people of the United States." On 
the fifth of March the Articles of Impeachment were presented to the 
Senate by the Managers, who were accompanied by the House ot 
Bepresentatives, the grand inquest of the nation. Mr. Bingham, the 
Chairman of the Managers, read the Articles of Impeachment. 

The Court, consisting of fifty-four Senators, presided over by the 
Chief-Justice, was organized on Thursday, the 5th of March. The oath 
was administered to Chief-Justice Chase by Associate-Justice Kel- 
son. The Chief-Justice then administered the oath to the Senators 
present, except Mr. Wade, whose eligibility as a member of the court 
was challenged on the ground that he was a party interested, since 
in the event of the impeachment being sustained, he, as President 
of the Senate, would succeed to the Presidency of the United States. 
After a discussion of several hours, the objection was withdrawn, and 
Mr. Wade was sworn as a member of the Court. On the 7th, Mr. 
Brown, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, served upon the 
President the summons to appear before the bar of the High Court 
of Impeachment, and answer to the Articles of Impeachment. 

The trial commenced on Friday, the 13th of March, the President 



THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. <) 

appearing by his counsel, Henry Stanberry, Benjamin R. Curtis, 
William M. Evarts, Thomas A. II. Nelson, and William S. Groes 
beck. Application was made by the President, through his counsel, 
for forty days in which to prepare his answer to the indictment. 
The Senate refused so much time, and granted ten days, ordering thai 
the trial should be resumed on the 23d. Upon that daj the Presi- 
dent appeared by his counsel, and presented his answer to the Ar- 
ticles of Impeachment. His answer was a general denial of each 
and every criminal act charged in the Articles of Impeachment. The 
counsel tin- the President then asked for a further delay of the trial 
for thirty day- after the replication of the Managers of the Impeach- 
ment should be rendered. This was refused, and the Managers, indi- 
cating their purpose to present their replication on the following day, 
it was ordered thai the trial sboidd be suspended only until Monday, 
the 30th of March, and then proceed "with all dispatch." There- 
plication presented by the Managers was a simple denial of each anil 
every averment in the answer of the President. 

On the 30th of March, the opening speech on the part of the 
House of Representatives was made by Mr. Butler. The remainder 
of the week was occupied by the presentation of documentary and 
oral testimony on the part of the prosecution. On Saturday. 
April 4th, the Managers announced that the case on their part was 
substantially closed. The counsel fur the President then asked for 
three working days in which to prepare for the defense. The Senate 
granted their request, and adjourned to meet as a Court of Impeach- 
ment on Thursday, April 9th. The trial being resumed on the day- 
appointed, Mr. Curtis delivered the opening speech for the defense. 
At the conclusion of this address, the testimony for the President, 
both oral and documentary, was presented. 

The testimony in the case having closed on Monday, April 20, the 
Court adjourned until the following "Wednesday, when the final ar- 
guments were commenced. Oral arguments were presented by each 
of the President's counsel, and all of the Managers for the prosecu- 
tion except Mr. Logan, who filed his in writing. The argument was 



10 THE FORTIETH CONGRESS. 

closed for the defense by Mr. Evarts, and for the prosecution by Mr. 
Bingham, each of whom occupied three days in lus address. The 
delivery of the arguments occupied a fortnight, ending on the 6th of 
May. On the following day, the mode of procedure having been 
determined, the Court adjourned until the 11th, when it re-assem- 
bled with closed doors for deliberation. Two days were occupied 
with these deliberations, during the course of which several Senators 
delivered elaborate opinions upon the case. 

Saturday, May 6th, was fixed upon as the day when the vote 
should be taken. It was ordered by the Senate that the vote should 
be taken on the eleventh article first. The name of each Senator 
being called in alphabetical order, thirty -five voted "guilty," and 
nineteen " not guilty." The former were Messrs. Anthony, Cameron, 
Cattell, Chandler, Cole, Conkling, Conness, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, 
Edmunds, Ferry, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, Howard, Howe, Morgan, 
Morrill (of Maine), Morrill (of Vermont), Mortou, Nye, Patterson 
(of New Hampshire), Pomeroy, Eamsey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, 
Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, Wade, Willey, "Williams, Wilson, Yates. 

Those voting " not guilty" were Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Davis, 
Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Hendricks, 
Johnson, M'Creery, Norton, Patterson (of Tennessee), Ross, Sauls- 
bury, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Vickers. 

Two-thirds of the Senate having failed to vote in favor of convic- 
tion, the Chief-Justice formally announced that the President was 
acquitted on the eleventh article. The Court was then adjourned 
until Tuesday, the 26th of May. On that day votes were taken on 
the second and third articles, on which the President was acquitted 
by the same vote which had been given on the eleventh article. The 
Senate sitting as a High Court of Impeachment then adjourned sine die. 

(continued in the second volume.) 
10 



BENJAMIN F. WADE. 

,.,: | ■:■•,.■ !.\ VTE. 




X Feeding Kills Parish, Massachusetts, on the 2Tth of 
Octoher, L800, was born Benjamin F. Wade, the youngest 

of ten children. 1 1 is father was a soldier of the Revolution, 
andfought in every battle from Hunker Hill to Yorktown. Eis 

mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, and was a 
woman of vigorous intellect and great force of character. 

The family was one of the poorest in New England. They hail, 
however, among their scanty property a few hooks, which eventually 
came into Benjamin's possession, lie never enjoyed more than seven 
days' schooling, yet under the tuition of his mother he soon learned 
to read and write. He read and re-read the few books of the family 
library, and as a boy hecame better informed than most of his age. 

He was for a time employed as a farm hand on very meagre wage-. 
When eighteen years old, thinking he might tind something better 
in the West, with a bundle of clothing on his back, and seven dollars 
in his pocket, he started on foot for Hlinois. He walked as far as 
Ashtabula County, Ohio, when a fall of snow having impeded his 
progress, he determined to wait for spring to finish his journey. He 
hired out to cut wood in the forest at fifty cents per cord. He spent 
his evenings reading the Bible by the light of the fire on the hearth 
of the log cabin, and in a single winter read through both Old and 
New Testaments. 

When spring came, he was persuaded to further suspend his jour- 
ney to Illinois, by engaging in a summer's work at chopping, logging, 
and grubbing. This was followed by a winter at school-teaching. 
After two years of such employment, he engaged in driving herds of 



2 BENJAMIN F. WADE. 

cattle from Ohio to New York. He thus made six trips, the last one 
leaving him in Albany, New York. Here lie taught a winter school, 
and in the spring hired himself to shovel on the Erie Canal, in which 
employment he spent the summer — " The only American I know," 
said Governor Seward, in a speech in the Senate, " who worked with 
a spade and wheel -harrow on that great improvement." 

Having occupied the summer in work on the canal, he taught 
school another winter in Ohio. In the following spring he com- 
menced the study of law with Hon. Elisha Whittlesey. He was soon 
after elected a justice of the peace. After two years he was admitted 
to the bar. He waited another year for his first suit, and from that 
time liis success was steady. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney 
for Ashtabula County, a position of great advantage to a young man 
just rising in bis profession. 

But Mr. Wade's destined field was politics. He was elected t<i 
the State Senate, where he took the lead of the "Whig minority. He 
aided in abolishing the law for imprisonment for debt. He inaugur- 
ated a war against the "Black Laws" of Ohio. He took a bold 
stand against the admission of Texas into the Union. " So help me, 
God '" he declared, " I will never assist in adding another rod of 
slave territory to this country." 

Mr. "Wade having attempted to bring about a repeal of the State 
laws that oppressed the negroes and gave security to slavery in the 
neighboring States, incurred the displeasure of his party friends, who 
left him at home at the next election. 

Time and events having at length brought the people up to Wade's 
position, they again sent him to the Senate against his will. There 
he procured the passage of a bill which founded the Oberlin College, 
'• for the education of persons without regard to race or color." He 
led the resistance of Ohio to the resolution adopted by Congress, 
dcii\ tng the people the right to petition concerning the abolition of 
slavery. He labored to bring the Legislature and the State up to 
the support of John Quincy Adams in his fight for the sacred right 
of petition. 



BENJAMIN F. WADE. 3 

In 1847, Mr. Wade was elected President Judge <<f the Third 
Judicial District. After the session of Ins court was over for the day, 
Judge Wade sometimes went to the neighboring school-houses and 
made speeches in favor of General Taylor, then a candidate for the 
Presidency. Since Wade was known far and near as a strong anti- 
slavery man, it was thought strange that he did not support Mr. Van 
Buren, the candidate of the Liberty party. Some of his friend, re- 
monstrated with him for supporting Taylor, a slaveholder. " Taylor 

is a g 1 old Whig," he replied, " and I am not going to stand by 

and see him crucified between two such thieve, as Cass and Van 
Buren." For four years he occupied the bench, and obtained with 
the bar and the people the reputation of a wise and just judge. 

In March, 1851, as he was hearing a cause in court, the tiring of a 
cannon in the streets of Akron announced to the public that Mr. 
Wade had been elected United States Senator by the Legislature of 
Ohio. The office had not been sought for by him, nor canvassed for 
by his friends. The arrangements of politicians and the selfishness 
of aspirants were over-ruled by the people in their desire to have 
one who would represent the manhood, the conscience, the progress 

of the State. 

"When Mr. Wade entered the Senate, he found but few opposed to 
the aggressions of slavery. In 1S56, when the great Kansas contro- 
versy" came up, the advocates of slavery were thirty-two against 
thirteen in favor of freedom. Wade showed himself brave against 
all odds and every influence. " I come before the Senate to-day," 
said he, " as a Republican, or, as some prefer to call me, a Black Ke- 
publican, for I do not object to the term. I care nothing about the 
name ; I come here especially as the advocate of liberty, instead of 
slavery." 

Mr. Wade has continued a member of the United States Senate, 
by successive re-election, for eighteen years. His Senatorial career 
has been marked by indomitable energy, unfailing courage, and in- 
variable consistency. It has been marked by some acts which 
cannot fail to cause his name to be remembered. He reported from 

19 



4 BENJAMIN F. WADE. 

the Committee on Territories the first provision prohibiting slavery 
in all the Territories of the United States to be henceforth acquired. 
He proposed in the Senate the bill for Negro Suffrage in the District 
of Columbia. 

It was in the days when Eepublicans in Congress were few, and 
the champions of Slavery were dominant in the councils of the Ee- 
pnblic, that Mr. Wade rendered services for the struggling cause of 
liberty that are never to be forgotten. He met the arrogant leaders 
of the South with a bravery that secured their respect, and gained 
friends for his cause. Toombs, the fierce fire-eater of Georgia, once 
said in the Senate, " My friend from Ohio puts the matter squarely. 
He is always honest, outspoken, and straightforward ; and I wish to 
God the rest of you would imitate him. He speaks out like a man. 
He says what is the difference, and it is. He means what he says ; 
you don't. He and I can agree about everything on earth except our 
sable population." 

It was the custom in those days for Northern Senators to yield 
submissively to the insolence of the slaveholders. Mr. Wade had 
too much nerve and independence meekly to accept the situation. 
Soon after he took his seat, a Southerner in debate grossly insulted a 
Free State Senator. As no allusion was made to himself or his State, 
Wade sat still ; but when the Senate adjourned, he said openly, if 
ever a Southern Senator made such an attack on him or Ohio while 
he sat on that floor, he would brand him as a liar. This coming to 
the ears of the Southern men, a Senator took occasion to pointedly 
speak, a few days afterward, of Ohio and her people as negro thieves. 
Instantly Mr. Wade sprang to his feet and pronounced the Senator a 
liar. The Southern Senators were astounded, and gathered round 
their champion ; while the Northern men grouped about Wade. 
A feeler was put out from the Southern side, looking to retrac- 
tion; but Mr. Wade retorted in his peculiar style, and demanded 
an apology for the insult offered himself and the people he rep- 
resented. The matter thus closed, and a fight was looked upon as 

certain. The next day a gentleman called on the Senator from Ohio, 
20 



BENJAMIN F. WADE. 5 

and asked the usual question touching his acknowledgment of the 
code. 

"I am here," he responded, " in a double capacity. I represent 
the State of Ohio, and I represent Ben. Wade. As a Senator, I am 
opposed to dueling. As Ben. "Wade, I recognize the code." 

"My friend feels aggrieved," said the gentleman, " at what you 
said in the Senate yesterday, and will ask for an apology or satis- 
faction." 

" I was somewhat embarrassed," continued Senator Wade, " by my 
position yesterday, as I have some respect for the Chamber. I now 
take this opportunity to say what I then thought ; and you will, if you 
please, repeat it. Your friend is a foul-mouthed old blackguard/' 

'•Certainly, Senator Wade, you do not wish me to convey such a 
message as that ? " 

"Most undoubtedly I do; and will tell you, for your own benefit, 
this friend of yours will never notice it. I will not he asked for 
either retraction, explanation, or a fight/' 

Next morning Mr. Wade came into the Senate, and proceeding to 
his seat, deliberately drew from under his coat two large pistols, and, 
unlocking his desk, laid them inside. The Southern men looked on 
in silence, while the Northern members enjoyed the fire-eaters' sur- 
prise at the proceeding of the plucky Ohio Senator. No further no- 
tice was taken of the affair of the da} y before. Wade was not dial 
lenged, but ever afterward was treated with politeness and consider- 
ation by the Senator who had so insultingly attacked him. 

Mr. Wade's fierce retorts sometimes fell with terrible effect upon 
his adversaries. When he was speaking against the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill, Mr. Douglas interrupted him with an inquiry designed at 
once to rebuke and embarrass him : " You, Sir, continually compli- 
ment Southern men who support this bill, but bitterly denounce 
Northern men who support it. Why is this ? You say it is a mora! 
wrong ; you say it is a crime. If that be so, is it not as much a 
crime for a Southern man to support it, as for a Northern man to 

do so?" 

21 



BENJAMIN F. WADE. 

Mr. Wade. — " No, sir, I say not ! " 

Mr. Douglas.—" The Senator says not. Then he entertains a 
different code of morals from myself and — " 

Mr. Wade (breaking in, and pointing at Douglas with extended 
arm and forefinger, his face wrinkling with scorn, and contempt and 
rage flashing out of his eyes)—" Your code of morals ! YorR mor- 
als ! My God, I hope so, sir ! " 

A witness of the scene says that the " Giant " was hit in the fore- 
head, and, after standing for a moment, his cheeks as red as scarlet, 
he sank silent into his chair. 

Mr. Wade gained enduring lame by the unanswerable reasoning, 
the powerful oratory, and the undaunted courage with which he 
resisted the extension of slavery against the united might of the 
propogandists of the South and North. 

Near the close of the Thirty -ninth Congress, Mr. Wade was elected 
President pro tempore of the Senate. He was chosen to that office 
at a time when it seemed probable that his election would soon be- 
come an elevation to the Presidential Chair by virtue of the impeach- 
ment and removal of Mr. Johnson. The narrowness of Mr. John- 
son's escape, and the nearness of Mr. Wade's approach to the Presi- 
dencv, are among the most curious scenes in recent history. 

As an orator, Senator Wade has little polish, but great force, di- 
rectness, and effect. He is an original thinker, and has much learn- 
ing for one whose advantages were so few. His manners are plain 
and unaffected, his tastes are simple as in his humbler years. At 
home, in Ohio, he lives in a style undistinguished from the substan- 
tial citizens about him. His residence is a plain white frame house, 
hid among the trees and surrounded by ample grounds. 

" There is," says one, " a Puritan grimness in his face, which melts 
into sweetness and tenderness when his sympathies are touched, and 
which is softened away by the humor which wells from his mirthful- 
ness in broad, rich, and original streams." 




■ 



C/C^€a-, /UA^/ux^ 



CHARLES SUMMER. 




HE ancestors of Charles Sumner were among the early 
emigrants to New England. His father's cousin. Increase 
Sumner, was one of the early governors of the State of 
Massachusetts, and was regarded as a worthy successor of Hancock 
and Adams. The father of Charles Sumner was a successful law- 
yer, and for many years held the office of High Sheriff of the County 
of Suffolk. 

Charles Sumner was born in Boston, January 6th, 1811. Having 
received a preparatory training in the Boston Latin School, and the 
Phillips Academy, he became a student in Harvard College, where 
he graduated in 1830. He subsecpiently entered the Cambridge Law 
School, where he pursued his studies three years under the direction 
of Judge Story, with whom he formed an intimate and lasting friend- 
ship. 

In 1836 he was admitted to the bar, and rose rapidly in his ] pro- 
fession. He was appointed Reporter of the Circuit Court of the 
United States ; and, while holding this office, published three vol- 
umes of decisions, known as "Sumner's Reports." At the same 
time he edited the " American Jurist." a law paper of high reputation. 

During three winters following his admission to the bar, Mr. Sum- 
ner lectured to the students of the Cambridge Law School. Then, 
as in after lite, bis favorite subjects were those relating to constitu- 
tional law and the law of nations. In 1836 he was offered a profess- 
orship in the Law School, and in Harvard College, both of which he 
declined. 

In 1837 he visited Europe, where he remained till 1S40, traveling 
23 



2 CHARLES SUMNKI'.. 

in Italy, Germany, and France, and residing a year in England. 
His time was improved in adding to his previous literary and le<j;al 
attainments an extensive knowledge of the languages and literature 
of modern Europe. 

After three years spent abroad, Mr. Sumner returned to his native 
city, and resumed the practice of law. In addition to his professional 
duties, he was occupied from 1844 to 1846 in editing and publishing 
an elaborately annotated edition of "Vesey's- Reports," in twenty 
volumes. 

Mr. Sumner was recognized as belonging to the Whig party, yet 
for several years after his return from Europe he took but little part 
in politics. He made his first appearance on the political stage on 
the 4th of July, 1845, when he pronounced an oration before the 
municipal authorities of Boston on " The True Grandeur of Nations." 
This utterance was made in view of the aspect of affairs which 
portended war between the United States and Mexico. This oration 
attracted great attention, and was widely circulated both in Em-ope 
and America. Cobden pronounced it " the most noble contribution 
made by any modern writer to the cause of peace." 

At a popular meeting in Fanned Hall, November 4, 1S45, Mr. 
Sumner made an eloquent and able argument in opposition to the 
annexation of Texas, on the ground of slavery. In the following 
year he delivered an address before the Whig State Convention of 
Massachusetts on " The Anti-Slavery Duties of the Whig Party." 
In this address, Mr. Sumner avowed himself the uncompromising 
enemy of slavery, lie announced his purpose to pursue his opposi- 
tion to that great evil, under the Constitution, which he maintained 
was an instrument designed to secure liberty and ecpial rights. Pro- 
visions in the Constitution conferring privileges on slaveholders were 
compromises with what the framers of that instrument expected 
would prove but a temporary thing. 

In 181(5 Mr. Sumner addressed a public letter to Hon. Robert C. 

Winthrop, who then represented Boston in Congress, rebuking him 

for his vote in favor of war witli Mexico. In this letter the Mexican 
24 



CHARLES SUMNER. 3 

warwas characterized as an unjust, dishonorable, and cowardly attack 
on a sister republic, having its origin in a purpose to promote the 
extension of slavery. 

The position of Mr. Sumner whs too far in advance of the Whig 
party to admit of his remaining in full fellowship. In J s l^ be sun- 
dered his old political ties, and aided in the organization of the Free 
Soil party, whose platform was composed of principles which he had 
distinctively announced in his public addresses. Van Buren and 
Adam-, candidates of the new party, were earnestly supported by 
Mr. Simmer in the Presidential contesl of L848. 

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Aet tended to obliterate old 
party lines and overshadow former political issues. A vacancy in 
the United States Senate occurring by the accession of Daniel 
Webster to the cabinet of Mr. Fillmore, the duty of electing bis suc- 
cessor devolved upon the Legislature of Massachusetts. By a coali- 
tion of Free-Soilers and Democrats in the Legislature, Mr. Sumner 
was nominated for the office, and was elected after an earnest and 
protracted contest. The result was regarded as a signal triumph of 
the anti-slavery party. 

In the Senate of the United States, Mr. Sumner's first important 
speech was against the Fugitive Slave Law. He then announced his 
great political formula, "Freedom is national, and slavery sectional," 
which furnished the clue to bis subsequent career. He argued that 
Congress had no power, under the Constitution, to legislate for the 
rendition of fugitive slaves, and that the act was not only in conflict 
with the Constitution, but was cruel and tyrannical. 

The great debate on the Missouri Compromise and the contest in 
Kansas elicited all of Mr. Sumner's powers of eloquence and argu- 
ment. His great speech, published under the title of " The Crime 
against Kansas," occupied two days iu its delivery. Southern Sena- 
tors and Representatives were greatly incensed by this speech, and it 
was determined to meet argument by blows. Two days after the 
delivery of the speech, Preston S. Brooks, a Kepresentative from 
South Carolina, assaulted Mr. Sumner while writing at his desk in 



CHARLES SUMNER. 



tlie Senate Chamber. Mr. Sumner, unarmed and powerless behind 
his desk, Mas beaten on the head until be fell insensible on the floor. 
A Committee of the House of Representatives reported in favor of 
Brooks's expulsion. The resolution then reported received a little 
less than the two-thirds vote necessary to its adoption. Mr. Brooks, 
however, resigned his seat, pleaded guilty before the court at Wash- 
ington upon an indictment for assault, and was sentenced to a tine of 
three hundred dollars. Having returned to his constituents to re- 
ceive their verdict on his conduct, be was re-elected to Congress by 
a unanimous vote. A few days after resuming his seat in Congress, 
he died suddenly of acute inflammation of the throat. 

On the other hand, Mr. Sumner did not fail to receive the endorse- 
ment of his constituents. In the following January, while still dis- 
abled with his wounds, he was re-elected by an almost unanimous 
vote, in a Legislature consisting of several hundred members. In 
the spring of 1857 he went to Em-ope, by the advice of his physicians, 
to seek a restoration of his health, and returned in the following 
autumn to resume his seat in the Senate. His health being still im- 
paired, he again went abroad in May, 185S, and submitted to a 
course of medical treatment of extraordinary severity. After an 
absence of eighteen months, he returned in the autumn of 1S59, with 
health restored, again to enter upon his Senatorial duties. 

It was highly appropriate that the first serious effort of Mr. 
Sumner, after his return to the Senate, should be a delineation of 
" The Barbarism of Slavery." In an elaborate and eloquent speech, 
which was published under that title, be denounced slavery in its in- 
fluence on character, society, and civilization. 

In the Presidential contest of 1860, which resulted in the election 
of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Sumner took an active part, and was grati- 
fied in seeing the signal triumph of principles which he had long 
maintained. On the secession of the rebel States, he earnestly op 
posed all compromise with slavery as a means of restoring the Union. 
He early proposed and advocated emancipation as the speediest mode 
of bringing the war to a close. 

26 



CHARLES SUMNER. 5 

In March, 1861, lie entered upon the responsible position of 
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. In this posi- 
tion he has rendered great service to the country by his vigilant at- 
tention to our interests as affected by our relations with European 
powers. His influence has always been exerted to promote peace 
and mutual understanding. On the 9th of January, 1862, he de- 
livered an elaborate speech, arguing that the seizure of .Mason and 
Slidell, on board the steamer Trent, was unjustifiable on the princi 
pies of international law which had always been maintained by the 
United States. 

In March, 1863, Mr. Sumner entered upon his third Senatorial term. 
Ee advocated with zeal and eloquence all the great Congressional 
measures which promoted the successful prosecution of the war. 
The Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery, which was the 
great act of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, was a triumph of the prin- 
ciples long advocated by Mr. Sumner, and forms a crowning glory of 
his statesmanship. 

On the first day of the Thirty-Ninth Congress Mr. Sumner intro- 
duced a hill looking to the reconstruction of the rebel States under a 
Republican form of government, and a measure to confer suffrage 
on the colored people of the District of Columbia. 

He took the high ground that it was the right and duty of Con- 
gress, under the Constitution, to guarantee impartial suffrage in all 
the States. He was bold and eloquent in advocating the securing, 
by Congressional enactment, of equal civil and political rights to all 
men without regard to color. 

He earnestly opposed the reconstruction policy of President John- 
son, and shuddered to see his disposition to leave the freedmen in 
the hands of their late masters. On the 20th of December, 1865, 
Mr. Sumner denounced the President's "attempt to whitewash the 
unhappy condition of the rebel States, and throw the mantle of 
official oblivion over sickening and heart-rending outrages where hu- 
man rights are sacrificed, and rebel barbarism receives a new letter 
of license." 

27 



6 CHARLES SUMNER. 

From first to last Mr. Sumner was one of the boldest of the oppo- 
nents of President Johnson's usurpations. In the great trial of Im- 
peachment he voted to convict the President, and sustained Lis ver- 
dict in the case by a learned and able opinion concerning the law and 
the evidence. 

Amid all bis official and public labors, Mr. Sumner has been con- 
stant in his devotion to literature. He published in 1S50 two 
volumes of " Orations ;" in 1S53, a work on " White Slavery in the 
Barbary States;" and in 1850, a volume of " Speecbes and Ad- 
dresses." Some of Ins recent speecbes in the Senate are as exhaus- 
tive in their treatment of their subjects, as elaborate in finish, as 
abundant in facts, and as copious in details, as ordinary volumes. 
Such, for example, is the great speecb in the Senate on " The Ces- 
sion of Russian America to the United States," in wbich tbe geog- 
raphy, history, and resomces of our newly acquired territory are set 
forth more accurately and fully tban in any accessible treatise on the 
subject. 

Mr. Sumner is tall and robust in person. He has regular features, 
wdiich bear the impress of thought and culture. His head is sur- 
mounted by an abundance of black hair, which is but slightly tinged 
with gray. As a speaker he is solemn and impressive in his manner, 
graceful in gesticulation, and deliberate in utterance. The varied 
stores of learning are so much at his command that he draws upon 
them with a frequency which sometimes brings upon him a charge 
of pedantry. By many he is regarded as too theoretical and too 
little practical for a successful statesman. It is his happiness, how- 
ever, to have lived to see many of his theories, once unpopular, 
adopted as the practical principles of the most powerful party in 
the nation. 

2S 




tZZtc^^Z-^, 



ALEXANDER G. CATTELL. 



M&OW that great financial problems, which concern the honor 
and even life of the nation, are to be solved, it is fortunate 
that thnv are men in the halls of National Legislation 
whose ability to grapple with such questions has been proven by their 

success in private business. 

Suchamanis Alexander G. Cattell, Senator from New Jersey. He 
was bom at Salem, New Jersey, February 12, 1816. The town of 
Salem was the residence of his ancestors for more than a century. 
There lived his patriotic grandfather, who in the war of the Revolu- 
tion was singled out as a special object of British vengeance on ac- 
count of his conspicuous devotion to the American cause. One day 
as he was plowing in the field, the breeze of the morning wafted 
across the Delaware the thunder of the cannon of the battle of the 
Brandywine. Turning his horses loose, he went quickly to his house, 
took down his fowling piece, rowed across the river, and. like John 
Brown at Gettysburg, took post in the ranks and poured his fire into 
the enemy. His son, the father of Alexander G. Cattell. inherited 
the spirit and principles of his Revolutionary sire. He was for half 
a century a successful merchant, and recently died, greatly respected, 
at the age of nearly fourscore years. 

Mr. Cattell being designed for mercantile business, received such an 
education as was deemed necessary for that pursuit forty years ago. 
At the age of thirteen he was placed behind the counter of his father's 
store, where he advanced, before he had attained his majority, to the 
head of a large and flourishing business of his own. 

At the age of twenty-four. Mr. Cattell was elected to the Legisla- 



29 



2 ALEXANDER G. CATTELL. 

tureofNew Jersey, and in 1844 was a member of the Convention 
called to revise the State Constitution. Although the youngest mem- 
ber of that body, which embraced the leading men of the State, he 
was second to none in ability and influence. Distinguished for 
sound common sense, a choice command of language, and a graceful 
and forcible delivery, he never rose to speak without commanding 
the respectful attention, and generally securing the conviction of his 
auditors. 

While success crowned his commercial operations in his native town, 
he possessed capabilities for a career of enterprise and competition 
in a more extensive field. Accordingly, in 1840, he removed to Phil- 
adelphia, where he entered into mercantile business, first with Mr. E. 
G. James, and afterwards with his brother, Mr. Elijah G. Cattell. lie 
soon became extensively engaged in the shipment of grain and other 
produce to foreign markets. He soon became a prominent member, 
and afterwards President, of the Corn Exchange Association of Phil- 
adelphia, which won honorable eminence among the business boards 
of that city for its public spirit and patriotic devotion to the interests 
of the country. The Association is composed of many of the most 
liberal and wealthy merchants of Philadelphia. Through their enter- 
prise, energy, and sagacious management, the grain trade of that 
city was developed, until it has become a commercial interest of the 
greatest magnitude. 

The Corn Exchange became conspicuous, at the outbreak of the 
civil war, as a pre-eminently loyal body of citizens. When the news 
reached Philadelphia that the rebellion of the South had culminated 
in the attack on Port Sumter, the Association then assembled for 
their daily business laid aside their "samples," and raising the flag 
of the country in front of their hall, pledged themselves to keep it 
floating till the rebellion should be subdued, and the honor of that 
flag vindicated. They contributed largely to aid in the enlistment of 
men, and the support of the families of such as went to fight the bat- 
tles of the country. The Association recruited, organized, and equip- 
ped two and a half regiments for the field. Mr. Cattell was chair- 

30 



ALEXANDER G. CATTELL. 3 

man of the special committee under whose supervision the patriotic 
service was performed. 

As a testimonial of the esteem in which Mr. C'attell was held by 
his associates in this work, they voted that when the old flag-staff at 
the camp, around which their regiments had rallied, was taken down, 
it should be planted on the grounds of his country scat. "When this 
was done, a magnificent flag was presented to him with interesting 
and appropriate ceremonies. 

During the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, Mr. Cattell 
gave to Mr. Lincoln's administration the utmost support of his talents, 
money, and influence. Few enjoyed to a greater degree the respect 
and confidence of that great, and good man. 

During Mr. CattelFs residence in Philadelphia he was several times 
a member of both branches of the municipal government. As aleg- 
islator for the city he ever had a careful regard for the great public 
and private interests intrusted to his care. 

No mercantile house in Philadelphia has stood higher than that 
of A. G. Cattell & Co. in a character for the enterprise and integrity 
that form the basis of commercial success. Mr. Cattell had other 
business connections, first as Director of the Mechanics' Bank, and 
then as President of the Corn Exchange Bank, proving himself to be 
an able financier, fully meeting the expectations which were formed 
of his character and talents from his previous career. 

In 1S55 Mr. Cattell resumed his residence in his native State, mak- 
ing his home in an elegant villa about three miles from the city of 
Camden, where he now resides. 

In 186G Mr. Cattell was elected a Senator in Congress from New- 
Jersey. " The esteem in which he is held by those who know him best," 
says Rev. Dr. Carrow, one of his biographers, " may be inferred from 
the fact that, at the last regular session of the Legislature, the Republi- 
can members refused to go into an election rather than fail to secure 
his triumph. In this case the members were influenced not so much 
by personal partialities as by their conviction of his pre-eminent fitness 
for the great post of a Senator in Congress in these critical times." 



4 ALEXANDER G. CATTELL. 

Senator Cattell, by his course in Congress, has shown that the con- 
fidence of his party was not misplaced. He has been firm, consistent, 
and able in his support of the principles he avows. 

Since he took his seat in the Senate, December 3, 1866, the voice 
and vote of Mr. Cattell have been given in favor of all the great 
measures of public policy which have given to Congress so prominent 
a place in the history of the country. Mr. Cattell's speeches abound 
in facta and figm-es so combined as to be most effective in argu- 
ment. At the same time his speeches are not devoid of rhetorical 
beauties calculated to charm the most indifferent hearer. 

To illustrate this, and at the same time give a hint of Mr. Cattell's 
views concerning the results of the war, we quote the closing para- 
graphs of his speech, delivered in the Senate January 22, 1867, on 
a " Bill to Provide Increased Revenue from Imports : " 

" The conflict is ended, and, God be praised, the right has tri- 
umphed ; and having thus elevated four million human beings from 
chains and slavery to freedom and to manhood, let us address ourselves 
to the work of stimulating the industrial energies of the nation, so 
that free labor shall find its wonted employment, and receive its just 
reward. 

"Perfect this bill, and then make it a law, and hope and courage 
will spring up throughout the nation. The fires of a thousand forges, 
and mills, and furnaces, will illumine the land, and the ceaseless hum 
of a million whirling spindles will chant the praises of the American 
Congress that had the wisdom to understand, and the fidelity to 
maintain the principles of the American system." 

32 




J^^L^^^^^^ 



CHARLES R BUCKALEW. 




IIIAELES R. BUCKALEWwas born in Columbia County, 
Pennsylvania, December 28, 1821. He isofFrench d( 
hi? ancestors having emigrated to this country on occasion 
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Hi- father and grand- 
father wirt' private citizens, undistinguished by wealth or position. 

We have but scanty information concerning Mr. Buckalew 
in his boyhood, whether in respect to his youthful occupations, the 
extent of his educational advantages, or other circumstances of inter- 
est. He once narrowly escaped drowning, when he was the sub- 
jecl of those peculiar mental experiences which are thought to indi- 
cate for the soul a future existence independent of the body. 

Mr. Buckalew adopted the profession of law. and was admitted to 
practice in 1843. From 1845 to 1847, he was Prosecuting Attorney for 
his native County, and from 1850 to 1856 was a Senator in the Penn- 
sylvania Legislature. Meanwhile, he served also as a Commissioner 
to exchange the ratification of a treaty with the Government of Para- 
guay ; and was. in 1856, a Senatorial Presidential Elector. In 1857, 
he was Chairman of the State Democratic Committee, was re-elected 
to the State Senate, and was appointed a Commissioner to revise the 
Penal Code of Pennsylvania. In 1S5S, he resigned the two latter 
positions, and was appointed by President Buchanan Resident Min- 
ister to Ecuador, whence he returned in 1861. In 1S63 he was 
elected a Senator in Congress from Pennsylvania, by a majority of 
one vote, for the term ending in 1S69. 

Mr. Buckalew is not so frequent a speaker as many in the Senate, 
and yet he is not silent in that great national council. In the com- 
3 "33 



2 CHARLES R. BUCKALEW 

mencement of his speech on the " Basis of Representation," Febru 
ary 21, 1865, he remarked that he had previously refrained from 
speech-making, supposing that " while the passions of the country 
were influenced by the war, reason could not be heard." And he took 
occasion to express regret that "questions pertaining to the war still 
occupied the attention of Congress to the exclusion of those connect- 
ed with economy, revenue, finance, ordinary legislation, and the ad- 
ministration of justice — questions which require intelligence, investi- 
gation, labor, and the habits of the student.' ' 

As an argument for changing the basis of representation as it 
existed, Mr. Buckalew gave statistical details showing the various ra- 
tios of representation in the Senate, as possessed respectively by the 
East, "West, and South. He maintained that New England had too 
great a preponderance of power in the Senate, both as to membership 
and the chairmanship of committees. " While," said he, " the popu- 
lation of the East is less than one-seventh of the population of the 
States represented in the Senate, she has the chairmanship of one- 
third of the committees. The chairmanship of a committee is a posi- 
tion of much influence and power. The several distinguished gentle- 
men holding that position have virtual control over the transaction 
of business, both in Committee and in the Senate." 

Mr. Buckalew thus presented the effect of restoration of represen 
tation to the Southern States upon the relative position of New Eng 
land: "Twenty-two Senators from the Southern States, and two 
from Colorado — being double the number of those from the East- 
would reduce the importance of the latter in the Senate, and remit 
her back to the condition in which she stood in her relations to the 
Union before the war. True, she would even then possess much 
more than her proportion of weight in the Senate, regard being had 
to her population ; but she would no longer dominate or control the 
Government of the United States." 

Mr. Buckalew opposed also the proposition to grant negro suffrage 

in the District of Columbia. " The objection," said he, " which I have 

to a large extension of suffrage in this country, whether by Federal 

34 



CHARLES R. BUCKALEW. 3 

or State power, is this: That thereby you will corrupl and degrade 
elections, and probably lead to their complete abrogation hereafter. 
By pouring into the ballot-boxes of the country a large mass of ig- 
norant votes, and votes subjected to pecuniary orsocial influence, you 

will corrupt ami degrade your elections, and lav t lie foundation for 
their ultimate destruction." 

Mr. Buckalew, bj speech and vote, opposed the Civil Rights Bill, 
the Freedmen'e Bureau Bill, and also the Military Reconstruction 
Bill. 

In a speech on the last named measure, Mr. Buckalew thus presents 
his view of its character : 

"Now, sir, wdiat does this bill do? It provides, in a section of 
country thus subjected to military rule the most unlimited, for the or- 
ganization of civil governments, State governments, and how? The 
military commander of the district is to appoint whomsoever he 
pleases, to act under whatever rules he may prescribe, according to 
his own pleasure, his own unregulated will, as agents and officers, to 
execute the plan of re-organization proposed, and these, his appointees, 
owing no obedience to any known law, and without rule or regula- 
tion for their conduct, other than that which he shall prescribe, are 
to proceed to enumerate the inhabitants, or rather, to register the 
electors among them, preliminary to what ' Why. sir. to their exer- 
cise of the most valuable and fundamental privilege of freemen — the 
institution of government for themselves. And for any abuse of 
power, for any outrage, for any misconduct whatever, this bill and 
its predecessor are utterly destitute of any provision for punishment." 

Mr. Buckalew is the ardent advocate of a "representative reform," 
by which minorities may have representation in the legislative bodies 
of the country, proportionate to their numbers. In advocacy of this 
scheme, he delivered an able and instructive address in Philadelphia, 
November 19, 1867. In illustrating what he termed the - " cumulative 
vote," and its influence on elections, Mr. Buckalew said : vi There are 
G0,000 voters in Vermont, of whom 40,00(1 are members of the Ke- 
publican party, and 20,000 of the Democratic party. I speak in 



4 CHARLES R. BUCKALEW. 

round numbers. By law that State is entitled to three Representa- 
tives in Congress, because her population, under the Constitution of 
the United States, authorizes the allotment of that number to her. 
Now, what ought to take place there ? The majority should elect 
two Representatives, having 40,000 votes, and the minority should 
elect one, having 20,000 votes ; but can that be so in point of fact at 
present ? If the electors of that State vote for three Representatives 
by general ticket, the majority would elect the whole three. By cu- 
mulative voting, by authorizing the 20,000 minority electors of that 
State to give each three votes to one candidate, that candidate would 
receive 60,000 votes, and the majority cannot defeat him. The ma- 
jority voting for two Representatives can elect them, but they cannot 
elect the third. Suppose they attempt to vote for three candidates, 
they can only give each of them 40,000 votes, and the minority can- 
didate has 60,000. If they attempt to vote for two, as they ought to 
do, that being the number they are entitled to, they can give them 
60,000 votes each, the same number that the minority candidate has. 
If they attempted to vote for one, they would give that one candidate 
120,000 ; but of course they would not throw away their votes in that 
foolish manner. The practical result would be that the 40,000 major- 
ity electors in that State would vote for two candidates and elect them, 
and the 20,000 minority electors would vote for one and elect him, and 
results analogous to this would occur all over the United States if this 
system were applied." 

86 




Jk^J A/^L^^ 






JAMES UAELAX. 



AMES HABLAfl was bom in Illinois. August 26, I S20. At 
the age of three years, his parents removed with him to 
Indiana, where he was employed, during his minority, with 
his father in agricultural pursuits. In the year l s ll he entered the 
Preparatory Department of Asbury University, then under the presi- 
dency of the present Bishop Simpson. Upon meager means obtained 
by teaching at intervals, he managed to graduate at that institution 
with honor in 1845. 

In the winter of 1845, being elected to the Professorship of Lan- 
guages in Iowa City College, he removed to that city. Here, among 
strangers, he early won for himself an enviable reputation for in- 
dustry, ability, and an unswerving integrity. 

In 1S47 he was elected bythepeople Superintendent of Public In- 
struction of the State of Iowa. This was no ordinary compliment to 
a young man who had resided in the State le~s than two years when 
the election occurred, especially when taken in connection with the 
fact that his opponent was the Hon. Charles Mason, who gradu- 
ated at the head of his class at the Military Academy at West Point, 
had served as Chief-Justice of the Federal Court of the Territory 
during the entire period of its existence, was conceded by all parties 
to be a gentleman of ability and unblemished reputation, and who, 
as a candidate, was the choice of the party which had, up to this 
election, been uniformly triumphant in the State and Territorv, and 
continued so until the Kaiisas-Xebraska issue, except when Mr. Har- 
lan was a candidate. 

In 18-t"\ Mr. Harlan was superseded by Hon. Thomas II. Benton. 



2 JAMES HARLAN. 

Jr., the officials insisting that the latter was elected by a majority of 
seventeen votes. The count, however, is now universally conceded 
to have been fraudulent. In this year he was admitted to the bar, and 
commenced the practice of law in Iowa City. In this profession, 
while he remained in it, he was eminently successful ; but his friends 
were unwilling to leave him at the bar, however agreeable to him, 
or however brilliant his prospects for a distinguished career in the 
profession. 

In 1850, the people, eager to trust and honor the young man who 
in every public position had proved himself worthy of their confi- 
dence, nominated him for Governor ; but, not being of constitu- 
tional age for that office, he was compelled to disappoint them by de- 
clining the proffered honor. 

Continuing in the practice of law until 1853, he was then, by the 
Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, elected President of the 
Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute, which during the winter follow- 
ing was re-organized with an amended Charter, under the name of 
the " Iowa "Wesleyan University." His industry and energy, with 
his varied learning and strong sense, compelled the same success here 
that had attended all his undertakings thus far, and which has never 
since deserted him. 

After two years of service at the head of the University, on the 
6th of January, 1855, he was elected by the Iowa Legislature a United 
States Senator for the term commencing on the 4th of March, 1855, 
and was admitted to his seat Dec. 3d following. Upon this election 
he resigned the presidency of the University, and was elected Profes- 
sor of Political Economy and International Law. 

His first formal speech in the Senate was made March 27th, 1S5G, 
on the admission of Kansas, and was regarded then, and must be 
held by the student of history hereafter, as one of the ablest argu- 
ments on the right and finally successful side of that great contest. 
Such men as Butler of South Carolina, Cass, Benjamin, Toucey, and 
Douglas soon learned to respect the sturdy logic of the young de- 
bater from the West. His speech upon the occasion of presenting the 



JAMES HAKLAX. 



memorial of James II. Lane, praying the acceptance of the mem.. rial 
of the members of the Kansas Territorial Legislature for the ad- 
mission of their Territory into the Union as a State, was a terrible de- 
nunciation of the great wrongs which the dominant party was in- 
flicting on Kansas. 

By a party vote, stimulated by this recent arraignment of the 
Democracy, it was, January 12th, 1857, resolved bj the Senate, 
••That James Harlan is not entitled to hi- -cat as a Senator from 
Iowa." The character of this decision may be understood from the 
following brief statement of facts: The Senate and Eouse of 
Representatives of Iowa agreed to go into joint session to elect a 
Senator and Judges. Alter thejoinl session had met and adjourned 
fromdayto day for sometime, it was discovered that the Whigs 
were about to be successful, and the Democratic Senator- absented 
themselves for the purpose of preventing an election. A quorum oi 
the joint session met, however, and a dear majority of both houses 
elected Mr. Harlan. Two years after, the matter was brought up 
on the protest of the Democratic members of the Stat.' Senate, and 
Mr. Harlan ousted as above stated. During these two year- of peace- 
ful occupation of his seat, a Presidential campaign was passed quietly, 
which might have been endangered by such party tyranny in the 
Senate, and Fremont made President— hence, no doubt, the delay. 

But Mr. Harlan repaired immediately to Iowa City, where the 
State Legislature was in session. He arrived on Friday evening, and 
was re-elected on the day following. He spent a day or two at his 
home in Mount Pleasant, returned to Washington, was re-sworn, and 
resumed his seat on the 29th of the same month, only seventeen days 
after his expulsion. 

In 1861 he was re-elected for a second Senatorial term without a 
dissenting voice among his party. During his entire service in the 
Senate, he has acted in harmony with the Republican party, which 
for four or five years was in a meager minority. He. however, com- 
manded the respect of his political opponents by his modest and yet 
fearless and able support of the measures which his judgment and 



4 JAMES HARLAN. 

conscience approved, by his unwearied industry in the examination 
of every subject of practical legislation, and by his evident honesty 
of purpose and integrity of character. The leading measures sup- 
ported by the Republican party had few, if any, more able advocates, 
and none more efficient or successful either in the Senate or before 
the people. The published debates of Congress show that he argued 
and elucidated with great clearness and conclusiveness every phase 
of the question of slavery and emancipation, in all their social, legal, 
and economic ramifications. 

He was the earnest advocate of the early construction of the Pacific 
Railroad, had made himself, by a careful examination, master of the 
whole subject, and was consequently appointed a member of the 
Senate Committee on the Pacific Railroad. 

As Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands he exerted a con- 
trolling influence in shaping the policy of the Government in the 
disposition of the public domain, so as to aid in the construction of 
railroads and the improvement of other avenues of intercourse, as 
well as to advance the individual interests of the frontier settler by 
facilitating his acquisition of a landed estate, and also by seeming a 
permanent fund for the support of common schools for the masses, 
and other institutions of learning. Under his guidance the laws for 
the survey, sale, and pre-emption of the public lands were harmonized, 
and the Homestead Bill so modified as to render it a practical and 
beneficent measure for the indigent settlers, and at the same time 
but slightly detrimental to the public treasury. 

Immediately after he was placed upon the Senate Committee upon 
Indian Affairs, it became manifest that he had made himself master 
of that whole subject in all its details. He consequently exercised a 
leading influence on the legislation of Congress affecting our inter- 
course with these children of the forest ; humanity and justice to 
them, as well as the safety of the frontier settlements from savage 
warfare, being with him cardinal elements to guide him in shaping 
the policy of the Government. The effect of the repeal, over Mr. 
Harlan's earnest protest, of the beneficent features of the Indian In- 

40 



JAMES HARLAN. 5 

tercourse laws, under the lead of Senator Hunter, which all admit 
laid the foundation for our recent Indian wars, furnishes a marked 

illustration of the safety of his counsels in these affairs. 

As a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, he was the 
earnest advocate of every measure calculated to develop and advance 
that great national interest, and prepared the only report marked by 
scientific research made on that subject by the Somite Committee 
during the last ten years. He gave liis earnest support to the Agri- 
cultural College Bill, though in conflict with his views of the proper 
policy for the disposition of the public lands, because he regarded it 
as the only opportunity for laying firmly the foundation for these 
nurseries of scientific agriculture, which must prove of vast conse- 
quence for good to the whole people of this continent and the toiling 
millions of the Old World. 

It is impossible in this brief narrative to reproduce even the 
substance of the many elaborate speeches made by him in the 
Senate and before the people. Among them may be mentioned a- a 
sample of the whole, his speech in reply to Senator Hunter of Vir- 
ginia, during the winter of 1S60-61, immediately preceding the 
breaking out of the rebellion. This speech was characteristic in 
clearness, method, directness, force, and conclusiveness, and was re- 
garded by his associates in the Senate as the great speech of the ses- 
sion. In the commencement he examines and exposes in their order 
every pretext for secession, and proceeds to charge upon the authors 
of the then incipient rebellion, with unsurpassed vigor and force, that 
the loss of political power was their real grievance. He indicated 
the impossibility of any compromise on the terms proposed by the 
Southern leaders without dishonor, and pointed out the means of an 
adjustment alike honorable to the South and North, requiring no re- 
traction of principle on the part of any one, by admitting the Terri- 
tories into the Union as States. He warned the South against a re- 
sort to an arbitrament of the sword ; predicted the impossibility of 
their securing a division of the States of the Northwest from the 
Middle and New England States : the certainty and comparative dis- 



Q JAMES HARLAN. 

patch with which an armed rebellion would he crashed, and con- 
cluded with a must powerful appeal to these conspirators not to 
plunge the country into such a sea of blood. Upon the conclusion 
of this speech, four-fifths of the Union Senators crowded around to 
congratulate him, and a state of excitement prevailed on the floor of 
the Senate for some moments such as had seldom before been wit- 
nessed in that body. 

lie was a member of the Peace Congress; but after seeing the 
members sent from the slave States, and witnessing the election of 
Ex-President John Tyler presiding officer, he predicted that its delib- 
erations would end in a miserable failure. 

He was also selected by the Union members of the House and Sen- 
ate as a member of the Union Congressional Committee for the man- 
agement of the Presidential campaign of 1SC4. Being the only 
member of the committee on the part of the Senate who devoted his 
whole time to this work, he became the active organ of the com- 
mittee — organized an immense working force, regulated its finances 
with ability and unimpeachable fidelity, employed a large number 
f presses in "Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York 
in printing reading matter for the masses, which resulted in the dis- 
tribution of many millions of documents among the people at home, 
and in all our great armies. To bis labors, therefore, the country is 
doubtless largely indebted for the triumphant success of the Eepub- 
lican candidate. 

In the month of March, 1SG5, Mr. Harlan was nominated by Pres- 
ident Lincoln for the office of Secretary of the Interior, and the nomi- 
nation was unanimously confirmed by the Senate without reference to 
a committee. Eesigning bis seat in the Senate, he accepted the office, 
and on the 15th of May. entered upon the discharge of his duties as a 
member of President Johnson's cabinet. 

His short administration of the Department of the Interior was 
characterized by untiring industry and earnest devotion to the public 
sen ice. The gradual divergence of the line of policy ad. ipted by the 
President from the principles of the Republican party, led Mr. 



JAMES IIARLAX. 



Harlan to sever his connection with the cahinet, by his resignation, 
which toot effect September 1. L866. Mr. Harlan left theoffice with 
the approval of the public for the course he had pursued, and the sin- 
cerely expressed regrets of the President himself. 

Previous to his resignation of the office of Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, Mr. Harlan had been re-elected by the Legislature of Iowa to a 
seat in the Senate of the United States, for the term commencing 

March K L867. 

On resuming his seat in the Senate, he was assigned to service in 
that body, on the Committees on the Districl of Columbia, Union 
Pacific Railroad, Post^Offices and Post Roads, and Foreign Kelations, 

of the firsl of which he is Chairman. This Committee is f the 

most laborious belonging to the Senate, having in charge all the 
public interests of the District; and in addition to the ordinary du 
ties of the Committee. Mr. Harlan is now engaged, under the au- 
thority of a resolution of the Senate, in codifying the local laws of 
the District, a work that requires care, precision, ami legal learning 
of no common order. 

While Mr. Harlan, since his return to the Senate, has spoken on a 
variety of subjects, his principal efforts have been hi. speech on re- 
construction, delivered on the 10th of February. 1868, and his opin- 
ion as a Senator in the Impeachment Trial of President Johnson. 
Of the former, it is not unjust to others to say, that no speech made 
during that long debate, presented the questions at issue in a clearer 
lio-ht or in language better suited to the comprehension of the masses 
of the people. It received the warmest encomiums of Mr. Harlan s 
politieal associates in the Senate, and thousands of copies were 
subscribed for and circulated as a campaign document, by the mem- 
bers of the two houses of Congress. Of the opinion, it is sufficient to 
say. that it is a strictly legal document, applying the law to the facts as 
established by the evidence, ami so clear and convincing that none 
can doubt the sincerity and uprightness of the vote which followed it. 
Mr. Harlan is a man of strong political convictions. This is 
shown by the whole tenor of his political life. Early in life. Ion- 



8 JAMES IIARLAN. 

before he occupied official station, he was identified, in feeling and 
principles, with the anti-slavery party of the nation. Almost at the 
outset of our late civil war, with the eye of a statesman, he foresaw 
that the rebellion could only result in the enfranchisement of the 
slaves of the South, and their elevation to the dignity of American 
citizens. So believing, he always acted consistently with that belief. 
He was among the first — if not the first — to advocate in the Senate the 
organization of the colored men everywhere in defense of the Union ; 
and since the close of the war, he has uniformly spoken and voted in 
favor of conferring upon them those rights of citizenship which they 
have honorably won by their endurance and bravery on the battle- 
field ; thus proving himself the worthy representative of a State 
which has just established impartial suffrage by the popular vote of 
its citizens. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1808, Mr. Harlan took an active 
part in promoting the success of the Republican cause. To that end 
he addressed numerous and large audiences in the States of Pennsyl- 
vania, Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana. On the stump, Mr. Harlan is a 
popular and powerful speaker. Natural and graceful in his manner, 
candid in his presentation of facts, skillful in portraying whatever 
tends to arouse the human sensibilities, and logical in Jus mode of 
reasoning, he has few superiors as a popular orator. 

Senator Harlan is in the prime of life, a Christian gentleman, a 
dignified Senator, of good habits , and in the enjoyment of vigorous 
health. He is an example to be admired and imitated by the young 
men of our country. As a youth he worked his way through college, 
acquiring an education in the face of trials and obstacles that would 
have deterred others from such an undertaking. As a man, by ster- 
ling integrity, a faithful discharge of his duties, and a close adherence 
to principle, he has earned the proud position he now occupies before 
the country, and in the affections of the people of his State. He is 
a bright exemplar of the benign influence of our free institutions, 
illustrating that, with energy and application, the poor and lowly 

may lift themselves up to the highest stations. 
" 44 



JOHN CONFESS. 



V)IIN CONNESS is a native of Ireland, and was born in 
L822. At thirteen years of age he came to this country, 
whither hehad been preceded by some enterprising brothers. 
By their kindness lie was favored with the advantages of academical 
education. Soon after arriving at manhood, he departed for Califor- 
nia among the earliest emigrants to that country. There he devoted 
himself with success to mining and mercantile pursuits. 

Turning his attention to politics, lie was, in 1852, elected to the 
State Legislature, in which he held a seat during four successive 
terms. In 1859, he was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor ; and in 
1861, he was the Union Democratic candidate for Governor. In 
1 863, he was elected a Senator in Congress from California for the term 
ending in 1869. He has served in the Senate on the Committees on 
Finance and the Pacific Eailroad, Chairman of the Committee on 
Mines and Mining, and as a member also of the Committee on Post- 
Offices and Post Eoads. 

Mr. Conness ranks among the efficient and active members of the 
Senate. The record clearly shows him to be vigilant and awake to 
all the great questions naturally passing iii review before the Senate. 
His speeches are generally brief and to the point, giving evidence of 
excellent sense, and a fearless aim to accomplish what appears to him 
to be his duty as a legislator, regardless of favor or reproach. As il- 
lustrative of all this, we may select almost at random various passages 
from his speeches on different occasions. 

Pending the question of dropping from the roll of the army unem- 
ployed general officers, Mr. Conness, January C, 1S65, submitted 



2 JOHN CONNES3. 

the following remarks, which must impress the reader as both curi- 
ous and interesting : 

" Early in the conduct of this war, nominations for high ranks 
were easily obtained. The result was, that inefficient men — men 
unable and unfit to conduct our armies to victory and success — ob- 
tained the highest rank in the army ; and the consequences were 
losses in every direction to the national cause. Why, sir, at a cer- 
tain period, during the last session of Congress, we desired a new 
Department Commander for the Pacific Department, and, anxious to 
send an officer there of good ability, of high military skill, that that 
country might be organized and prepared for an emergency likely to 
arise — possible, at least, to arise — I had several conferences with the 
Secretary of War ; I had an examination, with that officer, of the 
long list of unemployed major-generals and brigadier-generals then 
under the pay of the Government, and without public employment ; 
and if I were at liberty here to repeat the comment that followed the 
name of each in those various conferences, it would demonstrate the 
necessity of action somewhere to rid the country of the unnecessary 
and profitless burden that those gentlemen in high rank, holding high 
commissions under the Government, imposed upon it. It was five 
months before an officer deemed competent to send to that depart- 
ment could be selected, by the exercise of the greatest wisdom, from 
the long list of the then unemployed generals in the United States 
army." 

In the Fortieth Congress Mr. Conness has distinguished himself by 
the earnestness and ability with which he advocated measures de- 
signed to protect American citizens abroad. lie successfully urged 
the passage of an " Eight-Hour Law." When this bill was pending 
in the Senate, lie made a speech in which occurs the following pas- 
sage: 

" When I saw the column of Burnside, thirty thousand or forty 
thousand strong, marching through this city to the sanguinary fields 
between the Wilderness and Richmond and Cold Harbor, inclusive, 
and stood where I could see the eye of every man in the column, 

40 



.In UN C()N NESS :; 

] saw scarcely any luit those who had the marks of toil and stal- 
wart labor, black and white ; and if I never before that time rev- 
erenced the men who labor, 1 should do ir beginning at that period 
of in v life; but it was not necessary for me to begin then. 

"Now, Mr. President, there ir considerable agitation in this coun- 
try upon this question of whether a day's labor shall be constituted 
of eight or ten hours, and I have ao doubt there are those who think 
if this bill be passed, and the example be set by the Government, the 
eight-hour rule will follow in other industries conducted in the 
country. Well,sir, I hope it will. A personal experience enables me 
to say that I could, myself, perform more labor in eight hours than 
in ten taking any given week for the average; and then it gave more 
hours for study. Many and many a morning, at two o'clock, when 
I labored ten and eleven hours a day in my youth, found me 
yet endeavoring to enable myself to take my rank among my fel- 
lows in society ; and 1 desire, by my vote and voice, if that can in- 
fluence any one, to give an equal opportunity to the youths of the 
land connected with labor and toil. Let no man forget, because his 
task is made easy in this world, the thousands, the tens of thousands, 
and the hundreds of thousands who labor and toil for an ill-requited 
compensation, for a small compensation scarcely sufficient to furnish 
bread, much less to enable them to educate their children and bring 
them up tit to he citizens of this Republic. Make their path as easy 
as you can, by limiting their hours of labor. Give them time to 
think." 

As a specimen of effective "stump oratory." we ipiote the follow- 
ing extract from a speech delivered by Mr. Conness in Cooper Insti- 
tute. New York, September 30,1868, before an immense audience 
composed largely of Irish-Americans: " I come before you to-night, 
fellow-citizens, as one of yourselves, as one of a class of Americans 
denominated Irish-Americans. [Applause.] I will not say, I know 
I could not say. that there can be any title higher than that 
of an American citizen. [Applause.] And while some of us may 
be denominated, and may be better known as Irish-Americans, it 

47 



•i JOHN CONNESS. 

should be our 1 mast peculiarly that we are Americans, and Americans 
alone — [Applause] — not forgetting our origin, not forgetting the trials 
of the land we came from, and the race from which we sprang, for 
that but sharpens the mental appetite for liberty, as we find it estab- 
lished here, — [Cheers] — but as American citizens simply, owning a 
part in the great cause of the Kepublic established by the fathers, 
and maintained by their sons, to go down, I trust, to all posterity 
for ever. [Applause.] We have a high title in having a part in that 
cause, and in being known as American citizens. [Cheers.] The 
American people, in a short time, are to determine who shall be the 
Executive, to give to the Kepublic a guardian of its interests; a safe- 
guard, so far as an Executive can be such, to the principles upon which 
the Eepublic is founded, and we are to replace the man now filling 
that station by an accident — [Laughter and cheers] — with not only 
the greatest military leader of the world, but, greater than his mili- 
tary leadership, one of the simplest and the most virtuous citizens of 
America — a man who advanced, as he need not have done — and yet 
'twas well done — that he is not to have a policy against at once the 
intelligence and the virtue of the American people — [Applause] — but 
whose policy, if he is elected President, will be to give reality and effect 
to that intelligence and virtue. [Cheers.] What is to be tried, and 
what is being tried, in the contest that is now going on for the Presi- 
dential office is, whether, after the nation, at the cost of hundreds of 
thousands of lives, and thousands of millions of treasure, maintained 
intact the national integrity — whether that integrity shall be contin- 
uously maintained, and, in addition, whether the great principles of 
liberty, law and humanity, vindicated and re-established by our grand 
successes against rebellion, shall also be maintained, and also 
whether, in addition still, the measures that the American people 
have found it necessary to enact to maintain the condition of things 
shall be carried out." 





CTLE, 



JAMES R. DOOLITTLE. 




HUE ancestry of the subject of this sketch is part English, 
part Irish,and part Scotch. The paternal line was entirely 
English, and in early times it was connected with the Pu 
ritans in England. < >n the mother's side the ancestors were Presby- 
terians from the north of Ireland, His parents were born in New 
England, but early in life they removed to the village of Hampton, 
Washington County, in the State of New York, where James R. 
Doolittle was bom, January 3, 1S13. Four years after his birth his 
parents removed to Wethersfield Springs, in Wyoming County. At 
that time this part of the country was a wilderness. But the father, 
a man of great energy ami prudence, was not long in acquiring prop- 
erty and influence in the community which grew up around him. 
Although without the advantage of a college education, he was 
always an earnest advocate of schools. lie possessed a well balanced 
mind, firm religious principles and liberal views, and was the first to 
establish an Episcopal church at "Wethersfield. 

At the age of fifteen, young Doolittle entered college at Geneva, 
New York, and four years later graduated with the honors of bis 
class. At school be was especially proficient in Mathematics and 
Greek. Even at that time he had developed unusual oratorical talent 
in the debating societies connected with the institution. 

After leaving college, be read law with Isaac Hill of Rochester. 

During the three years of legal study then required before admission 

to the bar, he sometimes taught Mathematics, Greek, and Elocution. 

In 1S36, be was admitted to practice law in the State of Xew York, 

and soon after was married to Miss Mary L. Cutting, of Warsaw. He 

established himself in Rochester, where he remained for two years. 
■i 49 



2 JAMES It. DOOLITTLE. 

The illness of a brother, which afterwards terminated in death, in- 
duced him to return to Wyoming County. There continuing in the 
practice of his profession, he M r as elected District-Attorney in 1845, in 
a county largely opposed to him in politics. He performed the duties 
of the office with ability, and to the satisfaction of his constituents. 

In the year 1851, at the age of thirty-six, he removed with his 
family to Wisconsin, and took up his residence at Racine, which has 
since that time been his home. In a new State, surrounded by young 
and active men, he soon distinguished himself. He was employed by 
the Governor of Wisconsin to take charge of several cases for the 
State ; on the ground, as the Governor said, that Mr. Doolittle was a 
man of ability, and could not be bought. He was successful in ob- 
taining decisions in favor of the State. In 1853, he was chosen Judge 
of the First Judicial District of Wisconsin, but resigned in 1856, to 
resume the practice of the law. 

At this time the country was agitated by the troubles in Kansas. 
The Domocratic party, then in control of the Government, lent itself 
to the establishing of slavery in that Territory. When this course 
had been decided upon, he left the Democratic party, and assisted in 
the organization of the Republican party. The State of Wisconsin 
voted for Fremont, but Mr. Buchanan was elected President. 

In 1857, the Legislature of Wisconsin elected Mr. Doolittle to the 
Senate of the United States, and in 1863 he was re-elected to the 
same position. In 1860, he sustained Mr. Lincoln ; and in 1864 aided 
his re-election to the Presidency. 

For many years he was chairman of the Committee on Indian 
Affairs of the Senate, and gave direction to the Indian policy of the 
Government. Always opposed to harsh measures, he sought to avert 
conflicts and to establish peaceful relations between the races on the 
frontier. In 1865, Congress appointed a joint committee to visit the 
Indian country, and ascertain the necessities of the situation. Mr. 
Doolittle was chosen chairman, and in this capacity, with Senator 
Foster and Hon. Lewis Ross of the House, as one portion of the 
Commis>ion, visited the Indians of New Mexico, Colorado, and the 

50 



JAMES R. DOOLITTLE. 

Plains. One result of this enterprise was the prevention of a war 
with the ntunerous nation of Camanches, by restraining one of our 
ambitious brigadier generals from marching his troops aci-oss the Ar- 
kansas with the purpose of inaugurating hostilities. This one thing 
saved the ( rovernment at least thirty millionsof dollars. An incident 
occurred at Denver in Colorado, which illustrates the character of the 
subject of this sketch. Ee was invited to address the people on In- 
dian Affairs, for his views had much to do in determining the policy 
of the Government in that regard. It was only a few months after 
the Sand Creek massacre, where peaceable Cheyenne Lndiansof both 
sexes, old and young, had Keen slaughtered by wholesale at the insti- 
gation of Colonel Chivington. The meeting was held in the theater 
which only a short time before had been decorated with the scalps 
of more than a hundred Cheyennes, as trophies of the slaughter. 

Mr. Doolittle commenced his speech, but bad not proceeded far be- 
fore announcing the opinion that the Indian- Bhould I"' treated with 
kindness and fairness, and allowed to pass away from the face of the 
earth in peace, and not exterminated by the whites. This opinion 
was no sooner stated than the whole audience raised a howl of rage, 
rose to their feet, some of them brandishing pistols, and tried to hiss 
the speaker from the stage. But they bad mistaken the man. He 
folded Iris arms and gazed with cool defiance at the infuriated mass. 
They fired no shots, but in silence and awe soon resumed their seats, 
struck dumb by the courage and self-possession of the man. The 
speaker continued his remarks without further interruption, and did 
not spare the feelings or the prejudices of his audience. Xo man, 
unless possessed of physical and moral courage, could have braved 
such a storm of passion. 

In dealing with the negro question, which for more than a quarter 
of a century has engrossed the attention of statesmen, and agitated 
and disturbed the country, he has maintained the theories of Jeffer- 
son, in which he was schooled in youth. He has always opposed 
slavery and its extension, and favored a gradual separation of the 
races by colonization or any other peaceful means. During a public 

51 



4 JAMES R. DOOLITTLE. 

life of twenty-five year?, he lias never swerved from those fundamental 
ideas. Always a Democrat, when his party did not attempt or con- 
nive at the extension of slavery, yet when any such attempt was 
made, he was always among the first to break from his party. In 
18±S, he was a Free-Soil Democrat. In 1850, when an attempt was 
made to force slavery into the Territory of Kansas, he abandoned the 
Democratic party in the pride of its power, and became a Eepublican. 
Before the Rebellion broke out, he often urged the Southern leaders 
to adopt a system of gradually colonizing the negroes of the South in 
Central America, and thus remove the only cause which was dis- 
turbing the peace of the country. But his admonitions were un- 
heeded, as well by the extreme Republicans as by the men of the 
South. The same plan which Henry Clay had advocated, without 
material success, was again rejected, and the almost inevitable se- 
quence, in the excited condition of the public mind, was civil war. 
The attempt to avert the impending conflict met with but little favor. 
And yet it is doubtful whether any other course could long have 
postponed the collision which followed. 

During the war, Mr. Doolittle was a zealous supporter of the Union 
caiise, and labored in the Senate, and before the people, to accomplish 
its triumph. After the overthrow of the Rebellion, he favored a pi tlicy 
of magnanimity towards the South, and sought to lessen the bitterness 
existing between the two sections, and allay the angry passions which 
the war had aroused. His voice has been heard pleading in eloquent 
tones for mercy to the vanquished, and pointing out the evils, present 
and future, of continuing the animosities of civil strife. Although 
much censured for this course, deserted by many of his best friends, 
and charged with ignoble motives, he has held his course without 
faltering, feeling that it was his duty, and trusting in the returning 
reason of his fellow-countrymen, at a future day, for his vindication. 
The advocates of leniency and magnanimity always are commended 
when the wild storm of passion has abated, and the clear light of 
reason breaks through the vanishing clouds. 

A.- a member of the High Court of Impeachment, Mr. Doolittle 



.TAMES R. DOOLITTLE. 5 

voted to acquit the President. During the consultation of the Sen- 
ate, before the rendition of the verdict, he delivered an oral " opin- 
ion" on the case, of which the following is the closing paragraph : 

" Sir, much may he forgiven, much must lie forgiven in times of 
high party excitement, for the judicial blindness which it begets. 
Hut when this temporary and frenzied excitement shall have passed 
away, as pass it will, and when men shall carefully review this case 
and all the evidence given on this trial, their surprise will be. not 
that a few Republican Senators can rise above party prejudice and 
refuse to be driven from their clear convictions by party furor, but 
their utter astonishment will he, that any respectable Senator should 
ever for one moment have entertained the thought of convicting the 
President of the United States of a high crime or a mir-demeanor 
upon the charges and evidence produced upon this trial. ' 

As a public man, Mr. Doolittle is a statesman rather than a par- 
tisan. He has never felt himself bound to support party measures 
when he regarded them as prejudicial to the interests of the nation. 
Thoroughly a man of principle, in his daily life he conforms strictly 
to his convictions of duty. At times lie seems to hesitate, but it is . inly 
for a moment. When convinced that a certain course is right, he 
assumes it without fear of consequences, and urges it with untiring 
zeal and unvarying consistency. 

In a recent speech, delivered in the Senate. Mr. Howe, of Wiscon- 
sin, bore honorable testimony to Mr. Doolittle's integrity of charac- 
ter. "My colleague," said he, "has been a citizen of the State of 
Wisconsin since sometime about 1S50 or 1851. lie was for many 
years a leading lawyer in that State, very widely known to the pro- 
fession, enjoying a very large practice. He was four or five years a 
Judge of the Circuit Court in that State, before he came to the Sen- 
ate. I knew him for almost the whole time very well, personally ami 
by reputation, and I have great personal satisfaction in saying here, 
and I think it is due to the State that I should say it, that in all that 
time I never heard the slightest imputation cast upon him. either for 
the conduct of business in the Courts over which he presided, or for 



6 JAMES R. DOOLITTLE. 

the relations existing between him and his clients — never a whisper 
which could excite in the mind of any one a suspicion of his venality 
or corruption."' ■ 

As an orator, Mr. Doolittle has a high reputation, which is well 
deserved. His speeches possess much argumentative force, graceful 
imagery, and frequent eloquence. His manner is earnest and digni- 
fied, his utterance is deliberate and distinct, without apparent effort. 

Public men are praised more for their eloquence, wit, intellectual 
strength, and engaging manners, than for purity of character. But 
in forming a correct estimate of the character of a public man, pri- 
vate virtues, no less than public, should be taken into consideration. 
In this respect, the subject of this sketch will bear close scrutiny. In 
early manhood, he embraced the teachings of Christianity, and has 
lived a consistent, religious life. He is free from intemperance, and 
all its kindred vices. 

61 






'/y*0 






AAEON II. rll.Uil.V 



k ^ ATCOX IL CRAGIN was bom in Weston, Vermont, Feb- 
ruary 3, 1821. He is of Scotch descent, one of his an- 
■^lypr cestors being John Cragin, who was among the prisoners 
taken by Cromwell at the great battle of Dunbar, September 3, L650, 
and banished to America. 

Aaron worked at farming and in a woolen mil] until he became of 
age. His education was principally acquired at " Burr Seminary," 
Manchester, Vermont, ami at the "Lebanon Liberal Institute," at 
Lebanon, N. II. Having finished his studies at the academy, lie re- 
turned to his native town of Weston, and entered at once upon the 
study of law. He afterwards spent two years in law studies at 
Albany, New York, and was admitted to the bar in New York City, 
in the fall of 1S4T. The same year he moved to Lebanon. X. II., and 
commenced the practice of his profession. 

In 1848, Mr. Cragin took an active part in the canvass for Gen. 
Taylor, and was an associate editor of the Granitt State Whig, pub- 
lished at Lebanon. In 1852, he was on the electoral ticket for Scott 
and Graham, and made numerous speeches in behalf of those candi- 
dates. In the years of L852, I^">:'>. 1854, ami 1859,he was a member 
of the New Hampshire legislature. He was elected to the Thirty- 
fourth Congress, a representative from the Third Congressional Dis- 
trict of New Hampshire, by a majority of 3,000; although this Dis- 
trict, before that time, had been strongly Democratic. He was 
re-elected in 1*.">7, and served through the Thirty-fifth Congress. 

Mr. Cragin was a delegate at large from Xew Hampshire to the 
Eepublican Convention at Chicago, in 1860, and voted first and last 



•J AARON II. CRAGIN. 

for Abraham Lincoln, and supported him upon the stump in every 

county in Xew Hampshire. 

In June, 1864, lie was elected to the United States Senate for the 
full term of six years, as the successor of John P. Hale. 

Mr. Cragin is a staunch and able advocate of the measures enacted 
by Congress for the reconstruction of the Southern States. 

On the 30th of January, 1868, he delivered an address in the Sen- 
ate, in which he presented an able review of the Reconstruction acts, 
and the usurpation of Andrew Johnson. The speech closes with the 
following eloquent passage : 

" The Republican party, sir, is the people's party. It is the hope of 
the country and the anchor of its freedom. It is the representative 
of the true democratic sentiment of the country. It bears aloft the 
banner of liberty, and pleads for those lights of human nature which 
God has given to man. It swears by the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and acknowledges the manhood of the whole human race. It 
teaches the great Christian democratic doctrine that ' all things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto 
them.' It knows no baseness, cowers at no danger, oppresses no 
weakness. Generous and humane, it rebukes the arrogant, cherishes 
honor, and sympathizes with the humble. It asks nothing but what 
it concedes, and concedes nothing but what it demands. Destructive 
only to despotism and treason, it is the sole conservator of 
liberty, labor, and property. It cherishes the sentiment of universal 
freedom, of equal rights, and equal obligations. It sides with 
the weak and the down-trodden, and sympathizes with every 
effort to elevate the people and better their condition. A true 
Republican, while claiming an equality with the best, scorns any po- 
litical immunities not accorded to the humblest of his fellows. The 
ark of our national salvation rests upon the shoulders of the men com- 
posing this party. I pray that they may he patient and strong, bold 
.•iii.l prudent, patriotic an 1 just, devout and self-sacrificing, and res- 
olute and mighty, that we may transmit to uncounted millions and 
unborn generations the blessings of five, democratic government." 



AAKON II CRAGIN. 3 

On the 30th of July, L868, the bill for funding the national debt 
being the snbjecl of consideration in the Senate. Mr. Cragin m 
speech, of which the following is an extract : 

■• I am for this bill for another reason because it puts further off 
the time for the payment of this large debt. A very large amount 
of this debt is now due, it' the Government chooses to pay it. It 
cannot be paid without crushing the people \\ ith taxation. It should 
not ami must not lie done. The debts incurred by the State-. 
counties, ami towns, tor the ] atriotic purpose of prosecuting the war 
tor tin' Union, are very great. Indeed, they are more than the people 
ought to be called upon to pay in the next twenty years. The 
resources of this country are almost beyond calculation. 

" The wealth of the nation is increasing more than three times as 
fast as its population. The individual wealth of the people i- in- 
creasing annually more than the total amount of the national debt. 
In 1S60, our aggregate wealth, not including property owned by the 
United States or by any State, was over sixteen thousand million 
dollars, being an increase of one hundred and twenty-six and a half 
per cent, over that of 1850. The increase of our population was 
only about thirty-five per cent. Supposing we increase one hundred 
per cent, during each ten years in the future up to 1900, the result 
will astonish the world. In 1ST", our national wealth will be over 
thirty-two thousand million dollars ; in 1SS0, over sixty-four thousand 
million dollars ; in 1800, over one hundred and twenty-eight tin lusand 
million dollars; and in 1900, oyer two hundred and fifty thousand 
million dollars, or more than eight times what it now is. The 
people can then pay eight dollars as easy as they can pay one now. 
This generation has paid largely in life, toil, and treasure, for the 
blessings Ave now enjoy. If we transmit them to a future genera- 
tion unimpaired, they should pay the national debt that now hangs 
over us, as their price for the legacy of liberty and human rights." 

On the occasion of the presentation of the credentials of Hon. 
Frederick A. Sawyer, Senator elect from South Carolina, it was pro- 
posed to refer them to the Judiciary Committee, that investigations 



4 AARON II. CRAG IX. 

might be made of certain charges of disloyalty. Mr. Cragin opposed 
such reference, and said : 

" Probably I am as well acquainted with the facts and circum- 
stances connected with Mr. Sawyer as any Senator on this floor. 
He went from my State to South Carolina in 1S59, and with the 
exception of about four months he has been domiciled there ever 
since ; and those four months were in 1864, when he escaped and 
went to New England, and there stumped several of the New Eng- 
land States for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Is there any- 
thing in that parallel with the case of Thomas of Maryland, whose 
credentials were referred to the Judiciary Committee I Not at all. 
I have it within my personal knowledge, and from friends whom I 
know to be truthful, that all the time Mr. Sawyer was in Charleston, 
during the rebellion, he was a warm, earnest, devoted friend of the 
Union. I know that, in 1863, during the darkest hours of the war, 
he wrote private letters, and got them through the lines in some way, 
to friends in New Hampshire and elsewhere, urging them to remain 
Arm, to have courage, that the rebellion was about tottering, and 
would fall to the ground. Since the passage of the Reconstruction 
acts, he has been a leading advocate for reconstruction. By his pen, 
by his money, by everything that God has given him, he has devoted 
himself to reconstruction, and has worked earnestly and zealously. 
These charges that are made against him here to-day are charges that 
have been trumped up since his election or the day before, to defeat 
him. He is as loyal a man as sits in this Chamber. I hope the case 
will not be referred to the Judiciary Committee, but that he may now 
be admitted to take the oath." 

58 




AA, 3 . aju^XX 



(L^-i 



WAITMAX T. WILLEY. 




Bl^AITMAN T. WILLEY was bora in the county of Mon- 
;alia, Vh-ginia, October 18, L811. His birthplace was a 
'[ ■■' " log cabin, just twenty feet square." 

A.SSOOD as the httle boy could well walk, he was put to work upon the 
farm until he was twelve years old — receiving, meanwhile, eighl or 
ten months of schooling in a country school-house. From twelve to 
sixteen years of age — with the exception of tuition at a grammar 
school fur two months — he continued at hard work upon his father's 
farm, at the end of which time he went to Madison College. He was 
distinguished in college by industry as a student, and success as 
scholar, and at the end of his four years' course was graduated with 
the highest honors of his class, and was pronounced by the trustees 
of tin' institution as " well entitled to that honor."' 

In the following year, Mr. Willey — being yet under twenty-one 
years of age — commenced the study of law at Wellsbury, Virginia. 
He was admitted to the liar in 1S33. As a lawyer he was successful, 
and soon secured a good and reputable practice. In 1S40, he was a 
candidate for the State legislature. He was also on the "Whig electo- 
ral ticket, and made forty speeches in behalf of his candidate. In 
1841, in one and the same month, he was made Clerk of Mongalia 
Countv Court and of the Supreme Court. In 1850, he was elected 
a member of the Convention for re-forming the constitution of 
Virginia. In this Convention, Mr. Willey sustained a very prom- 
inent part. His speeches, which were somewhat numerous, were 
of decided ability, and were highly complimented, even by those 
whose views differed from his own. " He is," writes one of these, 
" a man of tine attainments, extensive reading, and high moral 

.w 



2 WAITMAN T. WILLEY. 

character; a bold thinker, an energetic and earnest speaker." 
His speech in this Convention, in favor of representation based 
upon suffrage, was deemed the best that was delivered on 
that side of this important question. In concluding this great 
speech, having alluded in glowing terms to the progress of popular 
liberty in the world, he adds this noble peroration : 

"And vet, in the midst of all this, in the middle of the nineteenth 
century, beneath the noontide effulgence of this great principle of 
popular supremacy, a voice is heard in old Virginia, rising from al- 
most the spot where the clarion voice of Henry awoke a nation to 
freedom, when he exclaimed, ' Give me liberty or give me death '— 
even here, where we should take oh' our shoes, for the earth on which 
we walk is holy — bearing in its consecrated bosom the remains of 
George Mason and Thomas Jefferson, the one the author of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, the other of the Virginia Bill of Rights — 
even here, a demand is made by honorable gentlemen to give superior 
political power to the property-holder, and virtually invest goods and 
chattels with the prerogative of legislating upon the rights and liber- 
ties of a vast majority of the people of this Commonwealth ! I trust 
this can never take place.'' 

In 1852; Mr. Willey was a Whig candidate for Congress, with no 
expectation of election, but to bring out a full Whig vote lor Genera! 
Scott. 

At the State Convention of the Whig party, February 10, 1858, 
Mr. Willey was nominated as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. 
Alluding to this nomination, the Richmond Whig represented Mr. 
Willey as " one of the ablest and most eloquent men in Virginia.'' 
and '• universally esteemed and popular." The Baltimore Patriot 
added : " A stronger name has never been presented to the freemen 
of Virginia. The name of Waitman T. Willey is a household word 
throughout the entire Northwest. A distinguished lawyer, with a rep- 
utation without a stain, his name upon the ticket secures at least 
five thousand votes that might have been considered doubtful." 

In the canvass, Mr. Willey addressed the people daily until the 



WAITMAN T. WILLEV. 3 

election, and was everywhere acknowledged as a -tut. -man. a patriot, 
an honest man, and an exemplary Christian. In the election he 
carried his own county, although his ticket ran behind. 

In I860, Mr. Willey, as might be expected, was exerting himself 
continually for the Union, and to strengthen the union sentiment of 
theState. In January, he published a long article for distribution 
on the general subject of disunion and secession. " Why, therefore, 
lie write-, "should we madly rush into the perils of disunion; Our 
country was never more thrifty and prosperous, and what but the na- 
tional Union secured to us all this happiness and prosperity '. I shud- 
der whenever I think of disunion. It does appear to me that some 
of our leaders, like the incendiary Erostratus, are aspiring after the 
infamous immortality which must eternally be attached to the names 
of the destroyers of the fairest fabric of national government ever 
devised by man. or bestowed on him by heaven." 

In the winter of 1860-61, Mr. "Willey was elected to a seat in the 
Richmond Convention, which resulted in the secession of Virginia. 
Referring to this Convention, he writes : "If the journal and pro- 
ceedings of that body ever come to light, they will show how faith- 
fully I resisted that terrible disaster." 

In July, 1861, he was elected by the reorganized legislature of 
Virginia, sitting at Wheeling, to the United States Senate, and took 
his seat in that body during the special session of Congress then in 
progress. Also, in the fall of this year, he was a member of the 
Constitutional Convention assembled at Wheeling, to ordain a con 
stitution for the proposed new State of West Virginia. 

The attitude of Mr. Willey in the United States Senate, at this 
most trying crisis, was eminently just, enlightened, and patriotic, and 
worthy of Virginia in its wiser and better days. 

"We may, with equal confidence," said he, '•challenge a more 
minute examination of the policy and administration of the General 
Government affecting the States in rebellion. And here I do but 

allege what the rt rds of tic country will amply attest, when I say 

that in the bestowment of. official -patronage and emolument and posi- 



4 WAITMAN T. WILLEY. 

tibn in every branch of the Government, the South has ever enjoyed 
an eminently liberal proportion of favor. The journals and acts of 
Congress will verity the assertion that every important measure of 
national policy has either originated with Southern statesmen, or has 
been made, sooner or later, essentially to conform to the demands of 
Southern sentiment. This is a broad assertion, but it is true. The 
South has always exercised a controlling influence in the councils of 
the Republic. She lias had more than an equal share of Presidents ; 
she has had more than a fair proportion of appointments in the Cab- 
inet ; the Supreme Court has been adorned with a full quota of her 
eminent jurists; the corps diplomatique has had no just cause of 
complaint for the want of representatives from south of Mason and 
Dixon's line ; and the glorious annals of our army and navy attest 
on every page the valor and skill of Southern chieftains." 

After unfolding the Southern conspiracy, he said : " Sir, truth will 
ere long strip these conspirators naked before the world, and the 
people whom they have so cruelly misled will rise up and curse them. 
History — impartial history — will arraign and condemn them to uni- 
versal contempt. It will hold them responsible before man and God 
for the direful consequences already brought upon the country, and 
for the evils yet to come — for the desolations of war, its pillage and 
rapine, and blood, and carnage, and crime, and widowhood, and 
orphanage, and all its sorrows and disasters." 

Mr. Willey, then and always, insisted upon the impossibility of 
dismemberment. "Sir," said he, "this Union cannot be dissolved. 
Nature and providence forbid it. Our rivers, and lakes, mountains, 
and the whole geographical conformation of the country rebuke the 
treason that would sever them. Our diversities of climate and soil 
and staple production do but make each section necessary to the other. 
Science and art have annihilated distance, and brought the whole 
family of States into rlosc propinquity and constant and easy inter- 
course. We are one people in language, in law, in religion, and 
destiny. ' Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' 
The past is glorious ; the future shall lie sublime." 



WAIT MAX T. WILLEY. •> 

JSrr. Willey, at the same session of the Senate, in an ableancl ap- 
propriate speech, gave a full and minute history of the new State 
matter, on the application of West Virginia for admission into the 
Union a- a State. He met every objection, satisfied every reasonable 
doubt, and secured an early, favorable, and unanimous report from 
the committee, its triumphant and speedy passage through the Sen 
ate and eventually through the [louse, until it received the sanction 
of the President. 

The new State having been admitted, Mr. Willey in August, l v ''>;;, 
was elected one of the United State> Senators from West Virginia. 
lie drew the short term of two years, before the expiration of which 
he was re-elected for the term ending in 1871. 

Thus far we have contemplated -Mr. Willey in scarcely more than a 
single phase of his character, while to pause here would leave tins 
sketch hut half completed. Not only has he sustained an eminent 
reputation as a lawyer and statesman, but he has all along stood be- 
fore the public as a Christian and a philanthropist. The very begin- 
ning of his professional life demonstrates the transparent integrity of 
his character. At thirty years of age, he writes : 

" I was poor when 1 started ; I am comparatively poor still. I was 
honest when I started, and, thank God, I am honest still. I would 
not give the consciousness of honesty and integrity for all the honors 
of ill-gotten gain/' Elsewhere he adds, on occasion of somewhat 
straitened circumstances: '-Poverty is far more desirable than ill- 
gotten wealth. I will live honest, if I die poor. I will live an hon- 
orable man, if I die in obscurity. I would not exchange the appro- 
bation of a good conscience for the hoards of Croesus. I would not 
relinquish the pleasure and exalted happiness of conscious integrity 
for the crown of an emperor." 

Mr. Willey is an active member of the Methodist Church, and his 
church connection seems early to have been with him a matter of 
gratulation and thanksgiving; while his religious experience, so far as 
it has been apparent to the eye of strangers, bears the marks ,,f 
deep sincerity and genuineness. In 1853, we find him delivering a 



G WAITMAN T. WILLEY. 

series of lectures on the " Spirit and Progress " of that branch of the 
church of which he is a member; wherein, among other things, lie 
discusses the importance of an earnest faith in connection with the 
performance of Christian duty. Alluding to these lectures, the pub- 
lic prints alleged, and doubtless with much truth, that " he would till 
a pulpit with no ordinary ability." 

The cause of Temperance has ever held a warm place in the affec- 
tions of Mr. AVilley. He was early a member of various associations, 
here and there, for the promotion of this great enterprise. In 1853, 
be was, by the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of West 
Virginia, elected their lecturer on "Temperance and Legal Prohibi- 
tion." 

We find him also deeply interested in Sabbath-schools, and he is 
himself a Sabbath-school teacher. So likewise has the great mis- 
sionary enterprise always enlisted his sympathies, commended itself to 
his judgment, and called forth his eloquence. Thus, he is not one of 
those lights that are hid under a bushel. At "Washington, Mr. Willey 
has preserved his consistency. He has been here the friend of tem- 
perance, missions, the Sabbath-school, and every good work. The 
National Intelligencer says of him : " He devotes his hours of leis- 
ure from legislative duties in furtherance of good objects here. His 
late speech at the Foundry Church on Sunday afternoon on Sunday- 
schools, will in it soon fade from the mind of anyone present on the 
occasion.'' 

More effective still seems to have been an address, delivered at 
Philadelphia, on a missionary occasion, when, in the course of his 
speech, he read various extracts from the highest authorities, illustrat- 
ing the elevating power of the Gospel upon heathen nations. He fur- 
ther insisted that it was the best civilizing agency that was ever em- 
ployed — that Magna Charta was not found at Ilunnymede, nor the 
Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia ; but that both of these 
immortal documents were traceable to the Bible. 

04 







'^S^J^^- 



SAMUEL C. POMEROY. 



*- (j^AMUEL C. POMEROYwas bom in South Hampton, Massa- 

^o^j) chnsetts, January 3, 1816, and his boyh I was spentupon 

'XUf his father's fann. In 1836, he entered Amherst College ; but 
at the end of two years, leaving college, he went to reside in Monroe 
Countv. Xew York, where he continued about four years. lie then 
returned to his native town of South Hampton. 

In 1840, during the time of his residence in the State of Xew 
York, lie heard that remarkable man, Alvan Stewart, on the subject 
of slavery, was deeply impressed with his eloquence, became a ready 
convert to anti-slavery principles, and began at once to labor zealously 
to promote them. 

His first effort seemed rather discouraging. Proposing to organize 
a c.unty liberty party, he issued a call for a meeting to be held 
at the county seat. On arriving at the place of meeting on the day 
appointed, after a ride of twenty miles in his own wagon, he found 
an audience of just two persons beside himself. After waiting an hour 
for other arrivals, and waiting in vain, nothing daunted, he called the 
meeting to order, one of the audience taking the chair, and the other 
acting as secretary. Mr. Pomeroy then delivered his speech, after 
which resolutions were presented and adopted, and a county ticket 
formed, which received at the election d\ v< n votes in a population of 
twenty thousand. In six years afterwards, however, the liberty party 
ticket of this same county carried the election. 

Returning to South Hampton, as we have seen, in 1842, Mr. Pome- 
roy, by his zealous efforts, had the satisfaction of seeing constantly in- 
creasing members added to the new party. He lectured in school- 



2 SAMUEL C. POMEROY 

houses— preached from house to house — met objections — answered ar- 
guments — softened down prejudices, and made converts everywhere. 
Year by year the work prospered, and though slow, it was sure: for 
victoiy, at last, crowned Iris efforts. Annually, for eight years, he 
was on the anti-slavery ticket for the Massachusetts legislature, but 
was unsuccessful until 1852, when he was elected over both "Whigs 
and Democrat-. His characteristic anti-slavery zeal lie boldly carried 
with him into the legislature. < >n the occasion of the rendition of the 
slave Burns to his assumed owner, he gave utterance to the following 
burst of eloquence : 

' ; Sir,'' said he, addressing the Speaker, " when you have another 
man to enslave, do it as you did before, in the gray of the early morn- 
ing. Don't let in the light of the brighter day upon the scene, for the 
sun would blush, if you did not, and turn his face away to weep. 
What ! return a man to hopeless slavery ! to a condition darker than 
death, and more damning than perdition ! Death and the grave are 
not without their hope ; light from the hill-tops of immortality cross 
the darkness and bid the sleepers awake, and live, and hope; and 
perdition with its unyielding grasp has no claims upon a man's poster- 
ity. But remorseless slavery swallows up not the man alone, but his 
hapless offspring through unending generations, for ever and for ever- 
more ! " 

About the time of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854, 
Mr. Pomeroy was in Washington, and his call upon President Pierce 
happened to be at the very hour of his signing it. It is said, in fact, 
that the ink was not yet dry upon the parchment when Mr. Pomeroy 
addressed the President in these prophetic words : 

"Sir, this measure which has passed is not the triumph you sup- 
pose. It does not end, but only commences hostilities. Slavery is 
victorious in Congress, but it has not yet triumphed among the peo- 
ple. Your victory is but an adjournment of the question from the 
halls of legislation at Washington to the open prairies of the freedom- 
loving West ; and there, Sir, we shall beat you, depend upon it ! " 

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act at once " fired the heart " 



SAMUEL C. POMEROY. 3 

of the North. " Emigration to Kansas ! " became a sort of watchword 
far and near. Freedom-loving men and women everywhere realized, 
for the first time, how much they were individually capable of doing. 
( >rganized emigration was at once initiated by the genius Eli Thayer, 
who, under a charter obtained from the Massachusetts legislature, or- 
ganized the '• New England Emigrant Aid Company." In this enter- 
prise, Mr. Thayer was ably seconded by Mr. Pomeroy, who discerned 
at a glance the value and practical natureof the idea. < >f this company 
he immediately became the financial and general agent, taking an 
active part in procuring and distributing all necessary information 
relating to the history, soil, climate, distance, etc., of Kansas, together 
with rents, time of passage, and expense for reaching there. More- 
over, he lectui'ed extensively, and by word and deed stimulated all 
who could make the samfice to emigrate to Kansas, and offered him- 
self to be their Moses to conduct them to the promised land. 

It was on the 27th of August, 1854, that the first band of emi- 
grants, under the leadership of Mr. Pomeroy, and numbering two 
hundred, started from Boston for the far West. At varioxis points on' 1 
their way, they received the greetings and sympathies of warm- 
hearted and earnest men and women, like themselves, who bade them 
God-speed with many prayers, tears, and benedictions. <>n the 6th 
of September they came to Kansas City, Missouri, on the borders of 
the great land whither they were destined; and passing up the Kan- 
sas River, they pitched their tents at the end of three days' journey, 
and gave the name of La/wrence to the place of their sojourn. An- 
other colony soon followed, whom Mr. Pomeroy met at St. Louis, and 
conducted them forward ; and in November another still came on, 
and were likewise met and guided by him into the Territory. 
Meanwhile, Gov. Reed and other appointed officials came on to ad- 
minister the government of the new Territory, and, in behalf of the 
emigrants, were welcomed by Mr. Pomeroy in such words as these : 

" "We welcome you to these rude homes of ours in the wilderness, 
which we have journeyed many weary miles to make, not because we 
look for better or for happier ones than we have left behind, but be- 



4 SAMUEL C. POMEKOY. 

cause we intend, in good faith, to meet the issues of the hour, lu 
the spirit of the act which reclaims these territories from savage 
haunts, and organizes them into homes for civilized men, we came to do 
our share in the work necessary to accomplish it. In pursuance of 
this object, and in imitation of those who sought liberty with the 
Mayflower, we came bringing with us, as they did with them, the 
institutions of our faith and our freedom — our churches and our 
schools. With the Bible in one hand, and the school-book in the 
other, we propose to make this 'wilderness to bud and blossom as the 
rose.' This Bible we lay upon the altar of a free church — this primer 
upon the desk of a free school, and may the God of our Pilgrim 
Fathers aid us in the work ! " 

The limits of this sketch do not permit us to tell of the inroads of 
Southern banditti that followed this emigration — of their guns, bowie- 
knives, and whiskey — of how slavery sought eagerly to gain posses- 
sion of the fair land of Kansas — how, for this purpose, and under the 
auspices of a weak and wicked administration of the General Govern- 
ment, it promptly introduced its hideous machinery of outrages, mur- 
ders, house-breakings, and robberies. 

Amid the disturbance and violence of this stormy year of 1S56, 
Mr. Pomeroy was called upon to prove his fidelity to truth, and his 
courage in maintaining principle. Beaten, arrested, and twice im- 
prisoned, threatened with death, and sentenced by a mob to be hung, 
he still escaped to complete the work yet remaining to be done. We 
find him in Washington conferring with the prospective Governor of 
Kansas — lecturing in various places in the East in its behalf — rallying 
and shipping Sharpe's rifles — forwarding ammunition, and thus vari- 
ously preparing for the worst. But peace came soon, and 1857 
opened auspiciously for the new Territory. 

Thus far the career of Mr. Pomeroy had been that of a philan- 
thropist. His political career now commences, and it commences 
with his righteous opposition to the infamous " Lecompton Constitu- 
tion." Against this he fought day and night, and by addresses and 
public lectures, not only throughout Kansas, but the Xorthem States, 



SAMUEL C. POMEROY. 5 

until in 185S Congress sent the swindle to the " tomb of the Capu- 
lets." 

Along tins period we have Mr. Ponieroj as Mayor of Atchison — 
as establishing the first free school of that town — building with his 
own private means a brick church, and presenting it to the Congre- 
gationalists — and entering heartily into plans for the relief of Kansas 
amid the terrible drought and famine of I860. 

It was in connection with this last-named effort that the noble dis- 
interestedness of Mr. Pomeroj 's character shone forth as conspicuously 
as in any other of his labors and sacrifices. Said he, at this time, to 
an intimate friend : "You know I intend to be a candidate for the 
United States Senate, and if I go into this relief business, it i cer 
tain to kill me ; for e\ erv dollar thai pai-ses through my hands ^ -un- 
to make an enemy of somebody. Some who don't need, will grum- 
ble because I refuse them ; others who are helped, will lie dissatisfied 
because I do not give them more ; and my political enemies will 
make every mistake tell against me, whether it be mine or the fault 
of somebody else. They will lie about me in every way they can, 
and the result of the whole business will be, so fur us the United 
States Senatorship is concerned, that I shall be killed as (lead as Jul- 
ius Caasar. But still, if this people are in danger of suffering again. 
I mean to go in and help them anyhow, and let my political prospects 
go, and trust to God forthc result ; " and Mr. Pomeroy proved by the 
result of his confidence, that "Blessed are all they that put their 
trust in him." Accordingly, after aiding most efficiently in minis- 
tering the ample relief that flowed into Kansas from ten thousand 
benevolent hands, so well satisfied with him were the people, that 
they placed him, forthwith, in the United States Senate, where he 
took his seat at the extra session, which met July 4, 1861. In lsOT 
Mr. Pomeroy was re-elected for the Senatorial term ending 1873. 

It seems epiite unnecessary to write that Mr. Pomeroy's entire 
career in the Senate has been what might be expected from the ante- 
cedents of the man. The very first measure introduced by him was 
precisely characteristic, and was a " Bill to suppress the Slaveholders' 



Q SAMUEL C. POMEROY. 

Rebellion." The very wording of the title evinces the intention of 
the author, which was to place the Rebellion directly at the door of 
the guilty party. His entire Congressional record, we believe, has 
been correspondent — all his speeches and votes have been eminently 
patriotic — and the true interests of the country have ever lain near 
his heart. 

On the 5th of March, 1866, Mr. Pomeroy, advocating universal 
suffrage by Congressional enactment, which he maintained was 
"nothing less than throwing about all men the essential safeguards 
of the Constitution," used the following language: " Let us not take 
counsel of our fears, but of our hopes; not of our enemies, but of our 
friends. By all the memories which cluster about the pathway in 
which we have been led ; by all the sacrifices, blood, and tears of the 
conflict ; by all the hopes of a freed country and a disenthralled race ; 
yea, as a legacy for mankind, let us now secure a free representative 
republic, based upon impartial suffrage and that human equality 
made clear in the Declaration of Independence. To this entertain- 
ment let us invite our countrymen and all nations, committing our 
work, when done, to the verdict of posterity and the blessing of 
Almighty God." 

One of Mr. Pomeroy's friends has graphically said : " True to prin- 
ciple, true to his convictions, true to his country, and terribly true to 
his country's foes, he occupies to-day, as Senator of the United States, 
a proud position among his peers — a position that honors both re- 
presentative and the represented. As a patriot, he is earnest ; as a 
statesman, logical ; as a politician, consistent ; and as a man, genial 
generous, and just." 




^/*x^ 




WILLIAM P. FI>si;XDEX, 



^ILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN, a s f the Hon. Sam- 



uel Fessenden, was born in Boscawen, N. II.. October L6, 
L806. Before he reached his twelfth year, he was fitted 
for college under the tutorship of a law student in his fathei"'s office, 
and ;it the age of seventeen was graduated at Bowdoin College,iu 
the class of 1Sl':'>. IK' immediately commenced the study of law, 
ami in l s -7, at the age of twenty-tmo. was admitted to the Portland 
bar. lie immediately opened an office in Bridgeton, Me., and in 
L829 removed to Portland. 

In 1831, at twenty-five years of age, Mr. Fessenden was elected to 
the State legislature, of which lie was the youngest member. lie 
rose at once to distinction, both as a debater and a legislator. His 
insight into the details of political economy, for which, in later years, 
he became so distinguished, were thus early evinced in an important 
debate on the United States Bank, in which the youthful orator dis- 
played remarkable spirit and ability. 

From 1832 to 1830, Mr. Fessenden devoted himself exclusively to 
his profession, in which he very soon rose to the first rank, both as a 
counselor and an advocate. In 1838, he was solicited to bscome a 
candidate for Congress, but declined. In 1839, lie was again chosen 
to the State legislature, a representative from the city of Portland. 
Although the House was largely Democratic, and Mr. Fessenden was 
a Whig always distinguished for an uncompromising assertion of his 
principles, nevertheless he was placed on the Judiciary ( !i immittee, and 
was made Chairman of the House Committee for revising the Statutes 
of the State. 



2 WILLIAM 1\ FESSENDEN. 

Mr. Fessenden, in 1S40, was nominated by acclamation as the 
Whig candidate tor < longress, and was elected by a vote running con- 
siderably beyond the party limit. In Congress he participated in the 
current debates, and made speeches on the Loan Bill, Army Appro- 
priation Bill, and against the repeal of the Bankrupt Law. In 
1843, he was nominated for re-election, but declined, from a choice 
to remain in the practice of his profession ; and, meantime, he re- 
ceived in the legislature of that year, the votes of the Whig party 
for a vacant seat in the United States Senate. In 1845, he was again 
elected to the State legislature, and was also chosen in the following 
year, but declined. 

From 1845 to 1852, Mr. Fessenden was in private life, devoting 
himself to his profession with a constantly increasing practice and rep- 
utation. During this period he was associated with Daniel Webster 
in an important case before the Supreme Court at Washington, in- 
volving a legal question never before discussed in that court. The 
question was as to " how far the fraudulent acts of an auctioneer in sell- 
ing property should affect the owner of the property sold — he being 
no party to the fraud \ " In this case, Mr. Fessenden had to contend 
against the weight and influence of Judge Story's opinion and de- 
cision, which were against his client in the court below. But he was 
successful, and Judge Story's decision was reversed. His argu- 
ment on that occasion was remarkable for its logical force and 
legal acuteness, and was said to have won the highest admiration from 
the most fastidious judges. 

Once, during this period (1850) of Mr. Fessenden's career, be was 
elected to Congress, but his seat was given to his competitor through 
an error in the returns. Yet he declined to contest the case before 
Congress, from an unwillingness to serve in that body. This unwill- 
ingness he had decisively expressed in advance to the Conventions of 
the Whig and Free-Soil parties, which, against his wishes, had insisted 
upon nominating him. 

Mr. Fessenden was a member of the National Convention whirl i 

nominated Gen. Harrison for the Presidency in 1S40 ; and of the 
72 



WILLIAM P. FESSENDEN. 3 

National Convention which nominated Gen. Taylor in 184S; and also 
of that which nominated Gen. Scott in 1852. He was a member of 
the Maine legislature in 1853, the Senate of which gave him a ma- 
jority vote for the position of Senator in Congress. But the House, 
being Democratic, tailed by four votes to con< ur, and no election was 
effected at that session. The same House, however, though opposed 
to him in politics, associated him with the Hun. Reuel Williams in 
negotiating the purchase of the large body of wild lands of Massa 
chusetts, lying in Maine, which was successfully a< mplished. 

In the following year, we find Mr. Fessenden in the State legisla- 
ture, both branches of which were Democratic. But the Kansas-Ne- 
braska question operating as a disturbing element, he was now elected 
United States Senator by both branches — a union being formed of 
the Whigs and Free-Soil Democrats. This event may he said to have 
been the preliminary step toward establishing the Republican party 
in Maine — the necessity of which, after the action of the Southern 
"Whigs on the Nebraska. Bill, Mr. Fessenden earnestly maintained, 
lie was strongly opposed to this hill ; and shortly after taking his seat 
in the Senate, and on the night when it was passed, he delivered 
one of the most electric and effective speeches that had been made 
against it. This great effort established his reputation in the Senate 
as one of its ablest members. Among other important speeches of 
Mr. Fessenden subsequently made in the Senate, is his speech on 
our relations with England ; also that on Kansas Affairs, and on the 
President's Message in 185(5 ; on the Iowa Senatorial election in 1S57, 
and on the Lecompton Constitution in 1858. In the general debates 
and business of the Senate, he has from the beginning taken a prom- 
inent part. 

In 1859, by a unanimous vote of his party in the legislature, and 
without the formality of a previous nomination, Mr. Fessenden was 
re-elected to the United States Senate for the term of six years. 

Toward the close of this term of service in the Senate, he was ap- 
pointed, by President Lincoln, Secretary of the Treasury, in place of 
Salmon P. Chase, who had been elevated to the Supremo Bench. In 



i WILLIAM P. FKSSEXDEX. 

the Thirty-seventh < Congress, he was Chairman of the Senate Finance 
Committee, a position which he held until appointed to the Cabinet 
in l s tW. In his capacity as Chairman of this important committee, 
Mr. Fessenden's labors were of a very arduous character. In the 
Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses there were all the vast 
appropriations of the Government to provide for, besides the labor 
of originating and putting in operation a financial system winch 
would enable the Government to meet the demands of a civil war, 
waged on a scale of colossal proportions. In the accomplishment of 
all this, Mr. Fessenden bore a very prominent and conspicuous part. 
As Chairman of the Committee on Reconstruction, very much labor 
and care devolved upon him. lie was authorized to write the Re- 
port of this Committee, which, in respect to ability, may be consid- 
ered one of the capital achievements of his life. 

As a laborer in the important work belonging to a legislator and 
statesman, probably few, if any, excel Mr. Fessenden. For clear, in- 
cisive common sense, the rarest and most excellent quality of a Sen- 
ator, he is eminently distinguished. " There is no man in Congress," 
says one. -whose judgment i- more true, whose discretion is more 
absolute, or whose conviction is more sincere.'' In great sagacity, 
catholic comprehension, and in that just estimate of what is practica- 
ble, he is probably unsurpassed. 

Mr. Fessenden is equally eminent as a debater. He thinks closely, 
clearly, and accurately. He speaks readily — being prepared to discuss 
on the instant almost any subject that may be presented. His 
speeches are entirely extemporaneous, and are so accurately pronounc- 
ed that they can be put in type without the change of a sentence or a 
word. And then there is scarcely a subject presented on which he 
does not have something to say — his remarks being brief and to the 
point. In opposition he is almost always reasonable, although, at 
times, the stern integrity of his character may render him somewhat 
impatient, particularly when in debate he is confronting mere 
rhetoric and sentimentality in place of argument and sound sense 
But he neither traduces nor defies his opponents ; and his advocacy of 



WILLIAM P. kf.sskn i>;:n 

measures is all the more effective that while firm, prudent, and point- 
ed, he is, a1 the same time, usually genial and always respectful. 

Mr. Fessenden's comvc and bearing in the progress of the i 
struction measures were invariably dignified and commendable. No 
one was more fully aware than he that the difficulties of the situa- 
tion were to be surmounted, not by vituperation and crimination, 
nor by petty jealousies or lofty moral indignation; but rather by 

tranquil firmness and h ;st argument. Differing from the ! 

dent, he forbore, however, to question his sincerity; and while con- 
vinced that certain conditions of re organization were indispensable, he 
refrained from either exasperating the late rebel population, on the 
one hand, or flattering them, on the other. 

Mr. Fessenden, as is well known, was one of those of the Republi- 
can party who, at the conclusion of President Johnson's Impeach- 
ment trial, voted for his acquittal. 

In the " opinion" which he prepared on this occasion, he said : "It 
would be contraryto every principle of justice, to the clearest dictates 
ofright, to try and condemn any man, however guilty he maybe 
thought, for an offense not charged, of which no notice has been given 
to him, and against which he has had no opportunity to defend him- 
self." 

After proceeding at groat length and with much learning to give 
reasons why he regarded the President not guilty on the several arti- 
cles, he added : " In the case of an elective ( !hief Magistrate of a great 
and powerful people, living under a written Constitution, there is 
much more at stake in such a proceeding than the fate of the individ- 
ual. The office of President is one of the great co-ordinate branches 
of the Government, having its defined powers, privileges, and duties; 
as essential to the very framework vt' the Government as any other, 
and to be touched with as careful a hand. Anything which conduces 
to weaken its hold upon the respect of the people, to break down the 
barriers which surround it, to make it the mere sport of temporary 
majorities, tends to the great injury of our Government, and inflicts 
a wound upon constitutional liberty. It is evident, then, as it seems 



6 WILLIAM P. FKSSLNDKX. 

to me, that the oftense for which a Chief Magistrate is removed from 
office, and the power intrusted to him by the people transferred to 
other hands, and especially where the hands which receive it are to 
be the same which take it from him, should be of such a character as 
to commend itself at once to the minds of all right-thinking men as, 
beyond all question, an adequate cause. It should be free from the 
taint of party, leave no reasonable ground of suspicion upon the mo- 
tives of those who inflict the penalty, and address itself to the country 
and the civilized world as a measure justly called for by the gravity 
of the crime and the necessity for its punishment. Anything less 
than this, especially where the offense is one not defined by any law, 
would, in my judgment, not be justified by a calm and considerate 
public opinion as a cause for removal of a President of the United 
States. And its inevitable tendency would be to shake the faith of 
the friends of constitutional liberty in the permanency of our free 
institutions and the capacity of man for self-government." 

Mr. Fessenden's vote to acquit the President subjected him to con- 
siderable censure from a majority of the Kepublican press of the 
country. Subsequently, on declining an invitation to a public dinner 
tendered to him by some distinguished citizens of Boston, he took 
occasion to explain and defend his action in the case. Whatever 
may have been the surprise and regret of many of Mr. Fessenden's 
friends at his decision in this momentous trial, no one can reasona- 
bly call in question the integrity and purity of the motives by which 
in this, as in his other public acts, he seems to have been actuated. 






.^^c 






ZACHAEIAB (HANDLER. 



"A< IIAUIAH CHANDLER is a native of Bedford, N. H., 
and was born Dec. LO, L813. Ee received an academical 
education in addition to the usual school training given to 
New England boys. 

As is common with. Mich boys, lie worked upon the farm until six- 
teen or seventeen years old. In the course of hi., youth be taught 
school two or three winters; and in I s :;."., when twenty-two years of 
age, he emigrated to Michigan, and engaged in mercantile business 
in Detroit. The country was then new, and Detroil was a town 
of but about 4,000 inhabitants. 

Mr. Chandler is one of those fortunate men of the West who have 
grown np with the country. He commenced, at first, a small retail 
dry-goods store, but was soon enabled by a prosperous trade to en- 
large his business to a wholesale trade, and extended, in course of time, 
his operations to all parts of the surrounding country, so that there 
were few of all the retail dealers in Northern and Western Michigan, 
Northern Ohio and Indiana, and in Western Canada, who were not 
numbered among his customers. 

Mr. Chandler was a Whig in politics, but seems never to have 
sought for political honor, choosing, rather, to set the example of ac- 
cepting office as an incident of the success of his party, than to strive 
for it as a primary object. His first official position was that of Mayor 
of Detroit, to which office he was elected in ISol. Here lie served 
acceptably, and the following year was nominated for Governor of 
the State. His strong anti-slavery convictions, however, were brought 
into the canvass, and he preferred to be what he deemed right, than 



2 ZACIIAKIAH (HANDLER. 

to be Governor. Id denouncing the institution of slavery as the great 
curse of the nation, he lost the election. The progress of anti-slavery 
sentiment in Michigan was such that in 1850 he was elected to the 
Senate of the United States for six years, and took his scat on the 4th 
of March of that year. 

During the important period of his first term in the United States 
Senate, Mr. Chandler was identified with all the leading measures of 
( Jongress for a general system of internal improvements — for prevent- 
ing a further increase of slave territory, and for the overthrow of the 
powerful domination of the slave power, which had usurped the con- 
trol of the nation. He was one of -the few Northern men in the Sen- 
ate at that time who foresaw the tendency of events, and that the 
country was drifting onward to a terrible war. 

Mr. Chandler opposed all the so-called compromise measures of the 
South, as the virtual surrender of the liberties of the people. In all 
the Senatorial contests of that period, he stands on record as the un- 
flinching defender of liberty, and the fearless advocate of the doc- 
trines of the Declaration of Independence. These great doctrines he 
maintained by speech and vote in the Senate and before the people ; 
and if an appeal to arms should be necessary, he welcomed the ar- 
bitration of war. 

"The country," writes one of Mr. Chandler's admirers, "does not 
now appreciate h >\v much it owes to his Roman firmness. The pe< iple 
have become too much accustomed to regard him as one of the great 
fortresses of their liberties, which no artillery could breach, and 
whose parapet no storming column could ever reach, that they have 
never given themselves a thought as to the disastrous consequences 
which might have followed on many occasions had he spoken or voted 
otherwise than he did. When did he ever pander to position or com- 
plain of being overslaughed by his party? Yet no man ever did 
braver work for a party, and got less consideration than he." 

As the war came on, and seemed for a time to be prosecuted with 
indifferent success, particularly in the East, Mr. Chandler, withamul- 
titude of other good men. chafed under what he considered the dila- 
78 



ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. ;; 

tory and unskillful management of army operations. He w as prompt 
tn discern and denounce the want of generalship in McClellan. His 
speech on this subject, made in the Senate, July 7. 1862 soon after 
the defeat of the army of the Potomac— was bold and incisive. 
"The country," he exclaimed, "is in peril ; and from whom — by win mi '. 
And who is responsible? As I hare said, there are two men to-daj 
who arc responsible for the present position of the army of the Poto 
mac. Tl is the President of the United States, A.braham Lin- 
coln, whom I believe to be a patriot whom I believe to be honest, 
and honestlj earnest to crush out and put down this rebellion ; the 
other is George I!. McClellan, General of the Army of the Potomac, 
of whom 1 will not express a belief. Either denounce Abra- 

ham Lincoln, President of the United States, whom 1 believe to bea 
pure and honest man, or< reorge B. McGlellan, who has defeated your 
army, lie took it to Fortress Monroe, used it guarding rebel prop- 
erty, sacrificed the half of it in the swamps and marshes before 
Yorktown and the Chickahominy, and finally brought up the right 
wing with only thirty thousand men, and held it there till it whipped 
the overwhelming forces of the enemy, repulsed them three times, 
and then it was ordered to retreat, and after that, the enemy fought 
like demons, as you and I knew they would, a retreating, defeated 
army. Tell me where were the left and center of our army; Tell 
me, where were the forces in front of our left and center '. Sir, twenty 
thousand men from the left and the center to reinforce Porter on the 
morning after his savage and awful fight, would have sent the enemy 
in disgrace and disaster into Richmond." 

Mr. Chandler, as we have seen, had no patience with any half- 
heartedness, or dilatory efforts in the prosecution of the war against 
the rebellion. He was for striking decided and heavy blows in order 
to crush the power of the enemy, and it was under the influence of 
such sentiments that he, in his place in the Senate, proposed a spe- 
cial " Committee on the Conduct of the War." This Committee was 
at once ordered. Mr. Chandler declined the chairmanship of the 
Committee, but was one of its most energetic members ; and his zeal- 



± ZACHAEIAH CHANDLER. 

oils and faithful efforts, in connection with, his associates, soon resulted 
in the removal of McClellan from his command. Equally active was 
he throughout the war in promoting its efficacy, looking after the in- 
terests of the soldiers, and encouraging all measures tending to a suc- 
cessful issue of the great struggle ; a struggle he knew it would 
prove to lie, in the very commencement of the revolt ; and he then, 
in a letter addressed to the Governor of Michigan, intimated that 
blood must flow if the Government was to be preserved. Several 
years afterwards, when taunted in the Senate by a Democratic Sena- 
tor in reference to this letter on "blood-letting," Mr. Chandler 
responded as follows: "It is not the first time that I have been ar- 
raigned on that indictment of ' blood-letting.' I was first arraigned 
for it upon this floor by the traitor John C. Breekenridge ; and after 
I gave him his answer, he went out into the rebel ranks and fought 
against our flag. I was arraigned by another Senator from Ken- 
tucky, and by other traitors on this floor. I expect to be arraigned 
again. I wrote the letter, and I stand by the letter, and what was 
in it. What was the position of the country when that letter was 
written ? The Democratic party, as an organization, had arrayed 
itself against this Government ; a Democratic traitor in the Presi- 
dential chair, and a Democratic traitor in every department of this 
Government; Democratic traitors preaching treason upon this floor, 
and preaching treason in the hall of the other House ; Democratic 
traitors in your army and navy ; Democratic traitors controlling every 
branch of this Government; your flag was tired upon, and there 
was no response ; the Democratic party had ordained that this 
Government should be overthrown ; and I, a Senator from the State 
of Michigan, wrote to the Governor of that State, ' unless you are 
prepared to shed blood for the preservation of this great Govern- 
ment, the Government is overthrown.' That is all there was to that 
letter. That I said, and that I say again ; and I tell that Senatorj if 
he is prepared to go down in history with the Democratic traitors 
who then co-operated with him, I am prepared to go down on that 

' blood-letting ' letter, and I stand by the record as then made." 
fO ' 



EDWIX D. MORGAN. 



f DWIN DENNISON MOKGAN is the seventh of her Gov- 
ernors whom New York lias honored with a seat in the 
Senate of the United States. The others were DeWitt 
Clinton, Van Buren, Marcy, Wright, Seward, and Fish. 

Mr. Morgan is a native of the town of Washington, Massachu- 
setts, where he was born on the eighth of February, 1811. He here 
enjoyed the opportunities afforded by the public schools, until the 
age of twelve years, when his father removed to Windsor, Connecti- 
cut, where he attended the high school, and subsequently was a stu- 
dent in the Bacon Academy at Colchester. In the family exodus 
to Windsor, this youth of a dozen years drove an ox team loaded 
with household effects, performing a good share of the journey, some 
fifty miles, on foot. At the age of seventeen he entered the whole- 
sale grocery and commission house of an unele, in Hartford, as clerk. 
Anecdotes illustrative of his mature judgment and penetration are 
extant, qualities which early commanded his relative's attention, and, 
at the end of three years, procured for him admission to a partner- 
ship. He remained here engaged in mercantile pursuits until his 
removal to the city of New York, whither, in 1S3.6, he went with a 
view to larger business opportunities. The period for such a change 
was perhaps fortunately chosen, for the financial crisis of 1S37, which 
occurred a few months after his advent there, afforded.) to a practical 
observer like himself, valuable lessons in the ethics of trade. At all 
events, his commercial house, since so successful, was established 
about this time on a sound and permanent basis. Enterprise, resolu- 
tion, and honorable dealing, marked its course, and soon acquired for 
6 SI 



2 EDWIN I). MO KG AX. 

Mr. Morgan a leading - place among tlio.se engaged in pursuits like 
his own. 

While vigilant in business, he was not unmindful of the claims 
implied in the right of citizenship, and from 1S10 to the close of the 
canvass that resulted in the overwhelming defeat of General Scott, 
he labored assiduously in the Whig ranks, though realizing that the 
non-election of Mr. Clay, to whom he was devoted, destroyed the 
prestige of his party. lie acted as Vice-President of the Republi- 
can National Convention held at Pittsburg, in 1856, and was there 
made Chairman of the National Committee. In that capacity he 
opened the Convention at Philadelphia, in 1856, that nominated Fre- 
mont, that at Chicago, in 1860, which nominated Lincoln, and also 
that of 1864, at Baltimore, which re-nominated Mr. Lincoln. In 
I860, he was made Chairman of the Union Congressional Committee '. 

In 1849, he was elected to the Board of Assistant Aldermen in New 
York, of which he was chosen President. A few weeks after taking 
his seat in the latter body, the Asiatic Cholera broke out. and owing 
to the unfavorable sanitary condition of the city, it spread so rapidly 
as to create great alarm. Mr. Morgan was placed upon the Sanitary 
Committee, and so imminent appeared the danger from this pesti- 
lence that his whole time was devoted to the details of the position. 
Hospitals were to be improvised, the sale of food to be regulate. 1, 
streets, yards, and places to be cleansed — indeed, many and pressing 
were the thankless duties incident to a critical moment like this, in a 
great city whose population is drawn from all quarters of the world. 
The efforts of the Board were attended with signal success, and in the 
fall of that year the Whig electors of the Sixth Senatorial District 
indicated their sense of his services by giving him a seat in the State 
Senate, and re-electing him two years afterward. In the Senate lie 
was placed at the head of the Standing Committee on Finance, 
where he remained through his term. At the Session of 1S51 he 
was made President pro tempore of that body, serving also in the 
same capacity at the extra meeting of that summer ; and although 
the Democratic party had gained control of the Senate in 1852, he 

82 



EDWIN' I). MORGAN. 3 

was unanimously chosen again as its temporary President, and also 
for the fourth time in 1853. 

In 1855, he was appointed a Commissioner of Emigration, which 
place was held until 1858, when he was elected Governor. To the 
latter office, before the end of his term, two years afterward, he was 
re-elected by the largest majority ever given to a governor in the 
State of New York. Important duties lay in the four years he was 
destined to till the gubernatorial chair; and as events proved, he pos- 
sessed rare qualifications for their performance. A knowledge of 
men. a high standing in the commercial community, a thorough 
business training, and practical knowledge of the complex finances 
of the State, coupled with clear and enlightened view- on questions 
tailing within the scope of his functions, and freedom from petty pre- 
judices, blended happily in the new Governor, lie Lad need of all 
these advantages, as also of his tireless industry, equable temper, and 
robust physique. His first term, though marked with vigor and tin- 
initiation of important reforms, was preparatory to the second, whose 
duties in extent and importance no other Governor of the State has 
been called upon to perform. 

On entering office, he found the State's high credit threatened, the 
public works still unfinished, though millions had been expended for 
their completion. 

Popular expectation, disappointed often, and wearied at length 
by the languid progress of the enlargement, was giving way to a 
disposition, adroitly fostered, to sell the canals, thereby to create 
a great and controlling monopoly, most baneful in its character. 
The militia, as an organization, had by degrees, through years of 
peace, quite lost its efficiency, and the condition of the military prop- 
erty and arsenal supplies was sorry enough. His first message to the 
Legislature, like all his others, shows a clear and searching insight 
into the condition of the State in its varied interests. These papers 
are eminently clear and frank, and are wanting neither in force of 
diction nor soundness of doctrine. In his first communication to 
the Legislature occurs this sentence : " Upright intentions, a heart 

83 



4. EI) AVI X D. MCTRGA X. 

devoted to the interests of the commonwealth, and unceasing appli- 
cation, are all the pledges I can give for the faithful execution of the 
trusts delegated to me by the people of New York." 

Pledge was never better kept, and he proceeded at once to make 
it good. The Canal finances received the first attention. The ( 'anal 
revenues had fallen largely below the constitutional claims upon 
them, owing, in part, to an immense reduction in tolls, but most of 
all to a lax system of expenditure by the use of drafts upon the 
treasury, anticipatory of appropriations, to the extent of millions of 
dollars, in express defiance of the laws and the Constitution. This 
illegitimate paper was hawked in the markets, where it was known 
as " floating debt," a new form of obligation to New York's ledger 
of State indebtedness. It was daily growing in volume, and was 
prejudicing other forms of the State's credit. The proceeds were 
being used, it is true, though not with economy, in completing the 
Canals. lie did not hesitate to present the whole subject to the Leg- 
islature, and to recommend early provision for its liquidation. " The 
people, thereby," said he, " are placed in the dilemma of paying an 
unauthorized debt, or seemingly incurring the stain of repudia- 
tion;" and while protesting against the whole system, adds, "but 
under no circumstances will the State of New York ever refuse to 
acknowledge and pay every and all just claims existing against her, 
or that have been contracted by any of her recognized agents."' The 
question was submitted to a vote of the people, who legalized the 
debt, though by a majority so limited as to afford wholesome warn- 
ing to any who might hereafter be tempted to repeat so evil a prac- 
tice. As respected the current management of the Canals, he urged 
that the tolls be largely increased, and the cost of maintenance be 
essentially lessened. Both recommendations were adopted with most 
satisfactory results. He took decided ground against the sale of the 
Canals, and, with characteristic energy, urged their completion. 
Before retiring from the Executive office he had the satisfaction 
of announcing the Canal enlargement as fully effected. 

The inadequate defenses of the harbor of New York were early 
84 



EDWIN D. MORGAN. 5 

adverted to by him with earnestness, and the series of labors per- 
formed by. him in this connection, and also in conjunction with 
others, afford honorable example of public economy and practical 

wisdom. In response to an inquiry, from the Inspector-Greneral <A' 
the Army, he says, in.- December, 1867: 

"You ask what steps were taken by me. as Governor ot' Kestf 
York, in response to Mr. Seward's circular letter of October, L861, 
upon the subject of perfecting harbor and coast defenses, and the 
amount of expense incurred by the State for that purpose. Immedi- 
ately on the reception of Mr. Seward's letter, I proceeded to ascer- 
tain what mode of defense would be the most judicious to adopt, 
with a view to making temporary provision therefor. I had called 
the attention of the Legislature to the inadequate defenses of the 
harbor of New York in January, I860, and, in view of dangers not 
necessary here to detail, the subject had not been lost sight of. 
Hence, I was the more ready to co-operate with the < reneral ( govern- 
ment in providing for the safety of the lake and sea-ports of the 
State, when the letter reached me to which you have called my atten- 
tion. 

"To the Legislature, on its assembling, I referred the whole subject, 
with the recommendation that, in default of prompt action on the 
part of the national authorities, it was the duty of the State to pro- 
ceed without delay with such portions of the defense as prudence 
should dictate. 

"Under apprehensions of hostilities growing out of the Trent 
affair. I had, in December, 1861, purchased a large quantity of timber 
for floating obstructions, at an aggregate cost of about $80,000, for use. 
if need be, in the form of cribs or rafts, connected by chain cables, to 
be anchored at the Narrows. The plan for its use, an eminently 
feasible one, had been carefully matured. "When no longer necessary, 
the timber was sold, without loss to the State treasury. 

"'No expense was therefore incurred, either in 1861 or 1862, for 
the specific object of your inquiry. Hut early in 1863, the defense- 
less condition of the harbor of New York was again the occasion ofj 

So 



i; EDWIN D. MORGAN. 

disquietude, because of the unfavorable aspect of this country's rela- 
tions with the two principal naval forces of Europe, and the liability 

to ravages of privateers. Accordingly, the Legislature appropriated 
$1,000,000 for the purchase of cannon, sub-marine batteries, and 
iron-clad steamers, and for providing such other means to protect the 
harbors and frontiers of the State as were deemed necessary by the 
commissioners named in the act, Governor Seymour, Lucius Robinson, 
comptroller, and myself. 

" Popular apprehensions had, doubtless, magnified dangers suffi- 
ciently grave, and the commissioners lost no time in personally exam- 
ining in detail all the fort ideations in the h, rbor, and conferring with 
engineers thoroughly conversant with the subject. As Government 
was then rapidly placing the largest and most improved guns in the 
forts and progressing with the fortifications, there remained little to 
be done in that direction by the State authorities, whose duties could 
therefore be best performed by supplementing the labors of the Fed- 
eral agents. And after due consultation with the Federal officers and 
other practical engineers, whose services, with the exception of the 
engineer in charge, it is but just to say, were gratuitously rendered, 
it was concluded to again resort to floating obstructions. Plans were 
at once advertised for, and, in due time, proposals for materials in- 
vited. As a precaution, my associates formally authorized me, in case 
of an unexpected attack upon the city of New York, to take such 
instant measures for defense as I might deem necessary, with liberty 
to use the whole appropriation, if required, for that purpose. 

•• When the bids were opened it was found that the enhanced price 
of timber and iron would so increase the cost of the proposed work 
as to render a further appropriation necessary, and, as meantime the 
relations of our country with certain foreign governments had 
become more pacific, it was decided to defer action until the regular 
meeting of the Legislature. Practically, however, the means for pro- 
viding a defense were at all times within reach. Timber in suffi- 
cient quantities and suitable iron cables were at command in case of 
emergency, and as the plans for the use of these were well under- 



EDWIN D. MORGAN. 7 

stood by a competent board of engineer officers who could be speedily 
convened, it was deemed unnecessary to urge further action. It only 

remains to he stated thai of the appropriation but $5, were used ; 

the balance of the million remains untouched in the State treasury. *' 

The Bubjecl of executive pardons received more than ordinary con- 
sideration from him, and considered in proportion to the applications 
presented, he granted fewer pardons than any of his predecessors. 
The matter of special legislation and the want of specific accounta 
l.ility for appropriati »ns1 > charitable objects engaged particular atten 
t ion. 

En common with close observers, be from the firsl Ueld as serious 
the threats of secession that followed the election of Mr. Lincoln, but 
Lent hi- influence to calm the popular mind, and to remove, so far as 
was consistent with principle, anj pretext for the course finally pur- 
sued by the South. But the attack on Sumter ended all disposition 
on his part to placate that secti »n. "This gratuitous violence, and 
this deliberate insult t i the flag, conclusively proves to all." said he, 
"that it is the design of the leaders to break up the Government." 
Thenceforward, day by day, he bent every energy to the work of 
putting down the rebellion. No other State was looked to for so 
many men and so much money as New York. Her quota was 
about one-fifth part of all the troops called for. The Legislature 
-was about to adjourn when the news from Charleston harbor reached 
Albany. A few earnest words served to present his views to the 
two Houses. In forty-eight hours they had appropriated three 
millions and a half in money for war purposes, and authorized the 
raising of 30,000 volunteers. With the aid of the State Military 
Board this number was soon enrolled and fully organized, and, by 
the third week in May, was hurried into the field, whither nine regi- 
ments of State militia, serving as minute men, had preceded them. 
So extensive had been the preparations of the rebels, as to leave it 
obvious that a single campaign would not end the struggle of the in- 
surgents. Hence, Governor Morgan was averse to refusing volunteers 
after the State's quota was filled ; and when the battle of Bull Run oc- 



8 EDWIN D. MORGAN. 

curred, he was in Washington seeking authority to establish camps of 
instruction at two or three points in the State, with a view to greater 
efficiency of recruits, and to keep aglow the spirit of enlistment. Fol- 
lowing the first great rebuff to Union arms, came the President's call 
upon Xew York for 25,000 men, and this demand was so far increased 
that on the first of January the State had raised 120,600 troops. On 
that day he was able to assert that "no requisition had been made 
by the Government that remained unhonored." 

The city of New York was a common rendezvous for the several 
States ; and many independent regiments were there forming, thereby 
impeding the State authorities. In view of these facts, and to 
seciire other practical advantages, at the same time to express his 
sense of the important services rendered by Governor Morgan, the 
President, in September, 1861, appointed him a Major-General of 
Volunteers, and created the State into a military department under 
his command. It is proper to add that he declined any emolument 
tor this duty of sixteen months. 

Succeeding the ardent spirit of volunteering of the earlier months) 
of the war, came a period when the disposition wholly ceased. The 
tardy movements of the eastern army and the unsuccessful series of 
battles of midsummer of that year had done the work. But the dis- 
aster that culminated at Malvern Hill, rendered a call indispensible, 
to be quickly followed by a second requisition of equal extent. 

The quota of New York under the two was 120,000 men. 
Prompt action was vital, and a special incentive to secure the new 
levies became necessary. The public clamored for an extra session 
of the Legislature to authorize a bounty. But this involved the delay 
of days, possibly of weeks, when time was so precious. It was clear 
that the people of the commonwealth favored a bounty, and Gpv- 
ernor Morgan did not hesitate to assume the responsibility of offering 
one. Accordingly he announced that the State would .give $50 to 
each man enlisting for three years. The stimulus proved sufficient; 
and volunteering at once began again in earnest. A class of volun- 
teers inferior to none who had ever taken up arms, were brought into 



EDWIN D. MORGAN. 9 

the service. The aggregate sum expended for this object was about 
$3,500,000, which the Legislature at its next session, acting on the 
recommendation of Governor Seymour, lost no time in Legalizing. 
The mode employed in this emergency, that of raising local regi 
ments bj committees of leading citizens for their respective Senate 
districts,proved to be wisely chosen. In a few days a regiment was 
ready for the field, and they followed each other with steadj pace, 
:it the rate of one a day until the great quotas were filled. Sevi ral 
of these regiments were equipped with arms purchased bj the Go 
ernor, ami most of them were uniformed and otherwise supplied from 
his purchases. They reached the field in time to take part in the 
battle of Antictam, inspiriting by their presence the hearts of the 
veterans whose rapid man-In'- northward had prevented communica- 
tion with friend-, and who were needing such a stimulus. r>y the end 
of Ins term he bad sent no less than 320,000 men into the field, 
being more than a fifth part of all that had yet entered the service. 
In addition to these, the State militia regiments were on three 
eral occasions dispatched to Washington, to answer emergencies. 
The thanks of the President and the Secretary of War were fre 
quently tendered Governor Morgan, for hi- promptness and efficiency 
in responding to their demands, and the extent of the aid that as 
executive of Xew York he was enabled to render. When lie left the 
office, New York stood credited with an excess over all quotas. 

Contracts for rations, clothing, arms and ordnance, to the extent 
of many million dollars, had been made by him in behalf of the 
General Government, in addition to what had been purchased for 
the State. All these business transactions have received the approval 
of the Federal authorities. 

There were, during his latter term, causes of grave uneasiness to 
which the public gave no particular heed, but which occasioned him 
no little anxiety. The disorderly element in the city of Xew 1 ork, 
stimulated by persons not unfriendly to the South, and which a few 
months after his retirement originated the riot there, was watched 
by him with unceasing; care. The rebel element in Canada, too, and 
89 



10 EDWIN D. MORGAN. 

the threatening aspect of the relations of this country with Great 
Britain in the earlier part of the war, made necessary, considering 
the proximity of the State to Canada and its extended and exposed 
frontier, a provision for prompt defense or retaliation ; and in the 
winter of 1862, a plan was matured, the execution of which he 
would have intrusted to General Wadsworth, with the latter's ap- 
proval, to secure the State from hostile dangers in that quarter. 
The subsequent raid at St. Albans and elsewhere along the northern 
borders, was but a feeble indication of what might have been in the 
earlier stages of the rebellion. 

In February, 1862, he was elected to the Senate of the United 
States for the term of six years, to succeed Preston King. He took 
his seat at the called session of March of that year, and has served 
on the Committees on Commerce, Finance, the Pacific Railroad, as 
Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, on Manufactures, 
Military Affairs, Mines and Mining, and on Printing. 

In February, 1S65, on the retirement of Mr. Fessenden, he was 
asked by Mr. Lincoln to accept the position of Secretary of the 
Treasury. This he declined; but not disposed to forego the ad- 
vantages which lie believed Mr. Morgan's presence in the Cabinet 
at the head of the Finances would bring, the President, disregarding 
his expressed wishes, nominated him without his knowledge, and it 
was only after earnest objections on his part that Mr. Lincoln con- 
sented to withdraw his name and leave him in the Senate. 

At its commencement, in July, 1867, Williams College, which is 
located in his native county of Berkshire, Massachusetts, conferred 
upon him the Degree of Doctor of Laws. 




*y7 tsf. A/^ 



^o 



THOMAS A. HEXDRICKS. 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS was bora in Muskingum 




County, Ohio, September 7, 1819. He was educated at 
South Hanover College. He studied law at Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, where he completed his legal studies in 1843. 
He soon after settled in Indiana, of which State his uncle, Hon. 
William Hendricks, was an early Governor, and a Tinted States 
Senator. 

In the profession of Law, Mr. Hendricks met with marked success, 
and attained great eminence. His professional business soon ceased to 
be of a mere local character, his practice extending largely into the 
highest courts of the State and the nation. In 1848, he was elected 
a member of the Indiana Legislature. In 1850, he was an active 
member of the Convention to amend the State Constitution. In 
1S51, he was elected a Representative in Congress from Indiana, 
and served two terms. 

In 1855, Mr. Hendricks was appointed, by President Pierce, Com- 
missioner of the General Land Office. During the four years of his 
service in this capacity, more business was transacted by the General 
Land Office than at any previous or subsequent period. Over four 
hundred thousand land patents were issued ; and the laud sold, located 
by warrants, and taken by grants, amounted to eighty millions of 
acres. 

In 1860, Mr. Hendricks was the candidate of the Democratic 

parry for Governor of Indiana, but was defeated. Two years later, 

his party having carried the State, he was elected a United States 

Senator for the term ending March 4, 1S69. 

01 



2 THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

In 1SGS, the name of Mr. Hendricks was prominently before the 
New York National Convention for the nomination as the Demo- 
cratic candidate for the Presidency. It was deeply regretted by 
many of his party that he was not chosen as their leader in the great 
political struggle which ensued. He actively participated in the 
campaign, however, as the Democratic candidate for Governor of 
Indiana. After an exciting campaign and a close contest, he was 
defeated by a majority of about one thousand. 

In the Senate of the United States, Mr. Hendricks was justly 
regarded as the ablest in the ranks of the minority. With great argu- 
mentative ability, and never-failing good humor, he advocated the . 
policy of his party in opposition to the Eeconstruction Acts of Con- 
gress. His great arguments on the Freedman's Bureau, the Civil 
Eights Bill, and on various questions of Eeconstruction, were 
regarded by all as masterly presentations of Democratic principles 
and policy. 

The career of Mr. Hendricks in the Senate has been marked by so 
much ability and courtesy as to win the respect and regard of his 
political opponents. In the course of a discussion in the Thirty- 
ninth Congress, a Republican Senator pronounced Mr. Hendricks 
" the best natured man in the Senate." On another occasion a 
Republican Senator remarked in debate, that if he had as much 
respect tor the political opinions of Mr. Hendricks as for his abilities, 
they would seldom disagree. 

As a speaker, Mr. Hendricks is graceful, deliberate, and impres- 
sive. He states legal and political propositions with clearness, and 
deduces conclusions with great logical skill, constantly giving evi- 
dence of careful investigation and thorough understanding of his 
subject. When feeling is to lie aroused, or action to be urged, his 
earnestness of manner gives great weight to his appeals. He uses 
little ornament, relying for effect rather on plain statement than on 
rhetorical flourish. 

On the 30th of January, 1868, Mr. Hendricks delivered in the 
Senate a speech on the Supplementary Eeconstruction Bill then 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. ;: 

pending, from the concluding portion of which we make the follow- 
ing extracts : 

"What objection have you to the constitutions of the Southern 
States as amended by the people ? For two years you have made 
war against this policy; for two years youhave feep) these States oul 
of the Union so far as representation was concerned; for two years 
you have kept thi.^ country disturbed and distracted; trade, com- 
merce, and business have been uncertain and shivering; industry has 
been fearful to put forth it- hand, or capital to trust to any enter- 
prise; the spirit of harmony and of union has been passing away 
from both sections of the country, because of the strife thai you have 
thus kept up. For what have you done it; What end have you 
attained? * * * You can laj your hand of logic upon bu1 one 
thing. * * * Youhave taken the robes of political power off 
the shoulders <>t' white men. and you have put them upon the shoul- 
ders of negroes. * 

" A republican form of government is a form in which the people 
make their own laws through legislators selected by themselves, exe- 
cute their laws through an executive department chosen by them- 
selves, and administer their laws through their own courts, is not 
that as near a republican form of government as von can have? 
That was the state of things when the Congressional policy sent five 
armies into the Southern States, when ten Governors were deposed 
by the paramount authority of the military power. - * * The 
property, the life, and the liberty of this people are placed at the 
control of the military authority ; and this is a policy that is called 
a policy of reconstruction, of restoration, and this you claim to be 
done under the guarantee clause which directs this Government to 
guarantee to each State a republican form of government ! You find 
no other point in the Constitution where you can stand. There is not 
a rock in the Constitution large enough for your feet to stand upon 
except this one, that it is your duty to guarantee a republican form of 
government to these States ; and in the exercise of that power, in the 
discharge of that duty, you establish a military rule and despotism 



i THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

which is defined in the language of the Declaration of Independence, 
declaring the offenses of the British Crown toward the Colonies. 

"This is all under the pretext of the guarantee clause. * * * I 
had some respect for it when it was claimed as under the military 
authority of the President, because when you say it is a military 
necessity I do not know any answer to that. Military necessity has 
no reply except obedience ; but to say to an intelligent people that 
you are guaranteeing a republican form of government to States. 
when you are subjecting all the legitimate and rightful authority of 
their State governments to military rule, is, in my humble judgment, 
an insult to an intelligent people. 

" I know the answer to this very well ; that your establishment 
in the Southern States is only provisional ; that it is only to last for 
a little time; and that out of its ruins there will 'spring up phoenix- 
like to Jove,' republican forms of government. You lay the founda- 
tions of free institutions on the solid rock of despotism, and expect 
it to grow up to a beautiful structure. I do not believe in the doc- 
trine that you can do wrong and expect good to follow. I believe in 
the doctrine that good is the result of good, and that from a pure foun- 
tain. * * - 

" Mr. President, my colleague has spoken of a column — the col- 
umn of Congressional Reconstruction — and has said that ' it is not 
hewn of a single stone, but is composed of many blocks.' Sir, I 
think he is right. Its foundation is the hard flint-stone of military 
rule, brought from the quarries of Austria, and upon that foundation 
rests the block from Africa and it is thence carried to its topmost 
point with fragments of our broken institutions. That column will 
not stand. It will fall, and its architects will be crushed beneath its 
ruins. In its stead, the people will uphold thirty-seven stately and 
beautiful columns, pure and white as Parian marble, upon which 
shall rest for ever the grand structure of the American Union." 

In the Impeachment trial, Mr. Hendricks voted tin- the acquittal of 
the President. In presenting his " opinion on the case," he closed as 
follows : 

9-t 



THOMAS A. HENDRICKS 5 

" I cannot concur in the opinion that has been expresse I, that if a 
technical violation of law has been established, the Senate has no 
discretion, but must convict. 1 think the Senate may judge whether 
in the case a high crime or misdemeanor has been established, and 
whether in the name of the people the prosecution ought to be made 
and sustained. Van Buren was not impeached for the removal of the 
Pensacola Navy Agent, and the designation of Purser Walker to take 
charge of the office. President Jackson was not impeached for the 
adinterim appointment of Boyle as Secretary of the Navy under a 
claim of constitutional authority, without any statute allowing it. 
Presidents Harrison and Fillmore were not impeachedfor making ad 
interim appointments of Secretary of the Navy, with no statute 
authorizing it. President Buchanan was not impeached for removing 
the postmaster at New < Means, and filling the place ad interim ; not 
for removing Fowler, the postmaster at New York, during the session 
of the Senate, and supplying the place ad interim, with no statutory 
authority; nor was he impeached for authorizing Joseph Holt to 
discharge the duties of Secretary of War ad interim, upon the 
resignation of John B. Floyd, though the Senate called upon him for 
his authority, and in his reply he cited one hundred and seventy-nine 
precedents, not going back to Jackson's administration. Mr. Lincoln 
was not impeached for the appointment of General Skinner l'o-t- 
master-General ad interim, without any statute authorizing it ; nor fi ,i- 
the removal of Isaac Henderson, Navy Agent at New York, during 
the session of the Senate, and the <<>! inf. rim appointment of Pay- 
master Gibson to the office; nor for the removal of Chambers, the 
Navy Agent at Philadelphia, during the session of the Senate, and the 
appointment of Paymaster Watson ad interim to the office, there 
then being no statute authorizing it. He was not impeached for 
continuing Major-General Frank P. Blair in command long after the 
Senate had declared by resolution that in such case the office could 
not beheld 'without a new appointment in the manner prescribed 
by the Constitution ; ' nor for the appointing at one time any more 
generals in the Army than the laws allowed. 



G THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

" Supported by a long line of precedents, coming through our whole 
history, unchallenged and unrebuked by Congress, President Johnson 
stands before us upon these charges ; and I ask my brother Senators 
what answer we will make to the people when they ask us why we 
selected him for a sacrifice for doing just what was always recognized 
as right in his predecessors '. Upon my oath, I cannot strike such a 
Mow. 

" The judgment of the First Congress was that the President has 
the right under the Constitution to remove the Secretaries, and that 
judgment is supported by the uniform practice of the Government 
from that day till the meeting of the Thirty-ninth Congress. The 
evidence shows that Mr. Johnson was advised by every member of 
his Cabinet, including Mr. Stanton, that he had that right under the 
Constitution, and that Congress could not take it from him nor impair 
it. and therefore it was his duty to veto the Tenure of Office Bill ; and 
that the bill did not include the appointments made by Mr. Lincoln ; 
and that, notwithstanding the passage of the bill, he woiild have the 
right to remove the Secretaries of War, of State, and of the Navy. 
This advice was given by the members of the Cabinet under the 
obligations of the Constitution and of their oaths ; and now, if we 
say that he. being so informed and advised, was guilty of a crime in 
demanding the right to select his own constitutional advisers, as it 
has been conceded to all the Presidents, and for that drive him from 
his office ami give it to a member of this body, it does seem to me 
that we will do an act of such flagrant injustice and cruelty as to 
bring upon our heads the indignant condemnation of all just men, 
and this impeachment will stand itself impeached before the civilized 
world." 

90 



CORNELIUS COLE. 



£53 



'^'jfffi'^ -^ tl' e year 1800 the grandparents of the subject of this 
sketch penetrated the wilderness of "Western New York. 
David Cole, his father, was at that time twelve years old, and 
Rachel Townsend, his mother, was ten ; the former having been born 
in New Jersey, and the latter in Dutchess County. Xew York. 

Cornelius Cole was born in Seneca County, New York, September 
17, 1S22. lie was afforded such educational facilities as the thrifty 
farmers of Xew York were accustomed to give their sons. 

When he was about seventeen years old, a practical surveyor 
moved into the neighborhood and proposed to instruct some of the 
boys in his art. Flint's " Treatise on Surveying " was procured, and 
in eighteen days young Cole, without assistance, went through it ; 
working out every problem, and making a copy of each in a book 
prepared for that purpose. 

In the following spring, the instructor having died, young Cole 
entered into practice as his successor, executing surveys in the coun- 
try about. 

It was after this that he began in earnest preparation for college; 
first in the Ovid Academy, and afterwards at the Genesee Wesleyan 
Seminary. 

He spent one year at Geneva College, but the balance of his col- 
legiate course was passed at the Wesleyan University in Connecti- 
cut, where he was graduated in the full course in 1S±7. After a little 
respite he entered upon the study of law, in Auburn, X. Y., and was 
admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of that State at Oswego, 
on the 1st of May, 18i8. 

After so many years of close application, recreation was needed, 



2 CORXELIUS COLE. 

and an opportunity for it Mas presented by the discovery of gold in 
California. On the 12th of February, 1849, he, in company with a 
few friends, left his native town for a journey across the continent. 
On the 24th of April, the party, consisting of seven, crossed the fron- 
tier of Missouri and entered upon the open plains. 

At Fort Laramie the wagons of the company were abandoned, and 
the rest of the journey was made with pack and saddle animals alone ; 
arriving at Sacramento City, then called the Embarcadero, on the 
24th of July. After a few days of rest, he returned to the gold mines 
in El Dorado County, and worked with good success till winter, 
often washing out over a hundred dollars a day. When the rainy 
season set in, he first visited San Francisco, and in the following 
spring began the practice of law there. While absent in the Atlan- 
tic States in 1851, two most destructive fires visited that city, and he 
returned to find himself without so much as a law book or paper 
upon which to write a complaint. He visited some friends at Sacra- 
mento, and unexpectedly becoming engaged in law business, opened 

an office there. 

Though he had been active in the political campaign of 1818. on 
the free-soil side, he took little or no part in politics in California 
beyond freely expressing his anti-slavery opinions, until his law busi- 
ness became entangled in it in this way : certain negroes had been 
brought out from Mississippi, and having earned much money for 
their master, were discharged with their freedom. Afterwards they 
were seized by some ruffians, with the purpose of taking them back 
to slavery. Cole unhesitatingly undertook their defense, and thus 
brought down upon himself at once the hostility not only of the 
claimants but of all their sympathizers, from the highest officers of 
the State down to the lowest dregs of society. California was at 
that time as fully subject, to the slave power as any portion of the 
Union. 

About this period he was united in marriage to a young lady of 

many accomplishments. Miss Olive Colegrove, who came from New 

York, and met him at San Francisco by appointment. 
98 



CORNELIUS COLE. •} 

He contended vigorously with the elements of opposition in his 
profession until 1856, when, the presidential campaign openin 
was urged "by the Fremont party to edit the Sacramento Daily 7 
the organ of the Republicans for the State. The paper was con- 
ducted to the entire satisfaction of the party, and at the same time 
commanded the respect of the Democrats and Know-Nothings. After 
the election its publication was suspended, and Mr. Cole returned to 
his profession. 

During the following four years he was the California member of 
the Republican National Committee and an active member of everj 
convention of his party, always taking strong ground against both 
the Breckenridge and Douglas wings of the opposition, and nevei 
consenting to any party affiliation with either. 

In 1859 he was elected District-Attorney for the citj and county 
of Sacramento, being about the only Republican elected to any office 
in California that year. 

His execution of that office during the two years for which he was 
elected was in the highest degree satisfactory to the people, ami the 
subject of frequent favorable comment by both the courts and the 
profession. 

In 1862 he visited the theater of the war. Before his return to the 
Pacific he had been named for Congress, and the following year was 
elected, receiving 64,985 votes. 

In the Thirty-eighth Congress he was eminently successful in ac- 
complishing results. lie was a member of the Committee on the 
Pacific Railroad and of the Committee on Post-offices and Post 
Roads. As a member of the latter committee, he originated the 
project for mail steamship service between San Francisco and the 
East Indies, known as the " China Mail Line."' The success of this 
great measure is universally conceded to be the result of his consid- 
erate management. His speech upon the subject was concise, and at 
the same time comprehensive and convincing. 

He delivered a speech in favor of establishing a Mining Depart- 
ment at Washington, full of argument and statistics. 
99 



4 CORNELIUS COLE. 

In February, 1864, when our arms were in their most depressed 
condition, lie made a very effective speech in favor of arming the 
slaves. 

Mr. Cole was among the most earnest advocates of the constitu- 
tional amendment abolishing slavery, and on the 28th January, 1865, 
made an effective speech in favor of the measure. 

Mr. Cole's first term in Congress ended with the first term of Mr. 
Lincoln's administration. In him the war always found a warm 
supporter, and he enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence of Mr. 
Lincoln. He was not elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, but re- 
turned to California, to be very generally named for the United States 
Senate to succeed Mr. McDougall. In December, 1S65, he was 
elected to that high office, receiving on the first balloting 92 votes 
out of 118, — having been nominated in the caucus of his party on 
the first ballot by a vote of 60 to 31. 

Mr. Cole's career as a Senator, which has just begun, promises to 
be replete with useful service to the country, watchful regard for the 
interests of his State, and honor to himself. He is deliberate in form- 
ing his opinions, as he is firm in maintaining them when reached. 



100 





clXjiJ 



EICHAED YATES. 




; figjl * " r OME who were not soldiers in the field, became conspicu- 
ous for their talents and patriotism amid the emergencies 
of the recent civil war. Prominent among these was 
Richard Yates of Illinois. He was born in Warsaw, Gallatin County, 
Kentucky, in 1818. In 1S31 he removed with his father to Illinois, 
and settled in Springfield. He studied for one year in Miami Univer- 
sity, Ohio, and subsequently entered Illinois College, where he 
graduated in 1S38, the first graduate in any Western college. He 
subsequently studied law with Colonel John J. Hardin, who fell at 
the head of his regiment in the battle of Buena Vista. Having 
been admitted to the bar, Mr. Yates settled in the beautiful city ot 
Jacksonville, Illinois, which has since been his home. In 1S42 he 
was elected to the State Legislature, and served until 1850. 

In 1850 he was nominated by a Whig Convention as a candidate 
for Congress, and was elected. In March, 1851, he took his seat in 
the House of Representatives, the youngest member of that body. 
A change was soon after made in his district, which, it was supposed, 
would secure a majority to the opposite party, yet he was re-elected 
over Mi - . John Calhoun, a popular Democratic leader. 

The district represented by Mr. Yates included the early home of 
Senator Douglas, where he had taught school, and, commenced the 
practice of law. When Mr. Douglas became the author and cham- 
pion of " Squatter Sovereignty " as applied to the territories of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska, his old friends warmly esj>oused the doctrine, 
partly through local pride and personal attachment to its author. The 
consequence was that, in 1854, Mr. Yates, who had opposed the "Ne- 
braska Bill." was defeated as a candidate for re-election to Congress. 



2 RICHARD YATES 

He subsequently devoted himself for several years to the practice 
of his profession and to the duties of president of a railroad. This 
interval of private life is looked hack upon by himself and his friends 
as the happiest and most prosperous period of his career. Living in 
the midst of a community the most moral and intellectual of any in 
the West, surrounded by a young and interesting family to whose 
happiness he was devoted, and by whom he was ardently beloved, he 
passed a few years, which were the happiest of his life. 

His family and near personal friends were reluctant to have Mr. 
Yates enter again upon political life, but his patriotic impulses and 
his ambition to mingle in more stirring scenes, induced him to accept 
the nomination for Governor of Illinois in I860. He had long been 
a devoted personal and political friend of Mr. Lincoln, and most 
gladly threw the power of his eloquence and the weight of his influ- 
ence to promote his elevation to the presidential chair. As both the 
leading candidates for the presidency were citizens of Illinois, the 
contest in that State was especially interesting and exciting. The 
result, however, could not be doubtful, and Richard Yates was in- 
augurated as Governor of Illinois at Springfield a few weeks before 
Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office in "Washington. 

The inaugural address of Governor Yates was a most eloquent 
protest against the gigantic treason of South Carolina and other 
seceding States. Freshly crowned with the suffrages of a great State, 
his voice was heard throughout the Union as a truthful utterance of 
the people of the Northwest. " On the question of the Union of 
these States,'' said he, " all our people will be a unit. The foot of 
the traitor has never yet blasted the green sward of Illinois. All the 
running waters of the Northwest are waters of freedom and Union, 
and come what will, as they glide to the great Gulf, they will ever, 
by the ordinance of '8t and by the higher ordinance of Almighty 
God, bear only free men and free trade upon their bosoms, or their 
channels will be filled with the comingled blood of traitors, cowards, 
and slaves ! " 

The rebellion soon assumed proportions more immense, and the 

102 



RICHARD YATES 3 

eloquent utterances of Governor Yates were put to a practical test. 
On the 15th of April, 1S61, the Secretary of War issued an order 
requiring the Governor of Illinois to contribute six regiments to make 
up the force of 75,000 men called out by the President's tirst procla- 
mation. 

On the day the Governor received the call of the War Department, 
he issued a proclamation for a special session of the Legislature to 
provide the sinews of war. 

Within ten days after the proclamation of Governor Yates was 
published, more than ten thousand nun had offered their services. 
The work of enlistment still went on, ami disappointment was every- 
where expressed that the services of more men could not be accepted. 

Cairo being a point of great strategic importance, situated at the 
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, and commanding both rivers, 
it was deemed important that it should at once be possessed and 
fortified by a Federal force. On the 19th of April Governor Yates 
ordered General Swift, of the State Militia, to take possession of 
Cairo. Forty-eight hours after the reception of this order, that 
officer left Chicago with four six-pounders and £95 men. On the 
morning of the 23d this force took possession of Cairo, which proved 
a most valuable military position during the war. It was fortunate 
for the country that this movement was made so promptly. A brief' 
delay might have enabled the enemy to carry out their cherished pur- 
pose of waging the war upon Northern soil. 

The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were then thronged with steam- 
boats engaged in the " Southern trade," and laden to the water's edge 
with Cincinnati dry goods, Northern produce, and Galena lead. 
The occupation of Cairo enabled Governor Yates to do a service to 
the Union by stopping this " aid and comfort" to the rebellion. The 
Governor having received information that the steamers C. E. JIHI- 
man and John D. Perrywere about to leave St. Louis with military 
stores, he inaugurated the blockade of the Mississippi by telegraph- 
ing to Colonel Prentiss, commanding at Cairo, " Stop said boats, and 
seize all arms and munitions." The command was promptly and 



4 RICHARD YATES. 

successfully obeyed, and all the strength which the commerce of the 
Mississippi and Ohio Rivera would have given to the rebel cause was 
at once cut off. 

The War Department required but six regiments of soldiers from 
Illinois, and two hundred companies were ready and eager to be 
accepted. Governor Yates urged and finally secured the acceptance 
of four additional regiments. The disasters of the summer of 1861 
aroused the General Government to a sense of the real danger of the 
country, and the necessity of a large army for putting down the 
rebellion. 

Illinois had nobly responded to the enlarged demands. By the 
close of 1861 Governor Yates had sent to the field more than forty- 
three thousand men, and had in camps of instruction seventeen thou- 
sand more. 

President Lincoln having on the 6th of July, 1S62, called for three 
hundred thousand additional volunteers, Governor Yates replied : 
" Illinois, already alive with beat of drum and the tramp of new 
recruits, will respond to your call." 

To the honor of Illinois it is to be recorded, that in the busiest 
season of the year, only eleven days were required to enlist more 
than fifty thousand men for the service of the country. 

When the time arrived for the election of members for the Gen- 
eral Assembly for 1863^-, there were at least one hunched thousand 
voters of Illinois absent from the State, in the service of the country. 
The consequence was the election of a Legislature with a majority 
opposed to the war for putting down the rebellion. It was in vain 
that the Governor recommended measures calculated to sustain and 
reinforce the soldiers of Illinois already in the field ; in vain that he 
pleaded the necessity of providing and appropriating means for sus- 
taining the financial and military credit of the State. The Legisla- 
ture was not possessed of the patriotic impulses which moved the 
Governor and those who had responded to his call. Their time w T aa 
wasted in unprofitable attention to other interests than those of the 

country in the great emergencv which was upon her. 
101 



RICHARD YATES 5 

In June, Injo, a disagreement having occurred between the two 

houses as to the time of final adjournment, the Governor, in the ex- 
ercise of a power placed in his hands by the constitution, prorogued 
the General Assembly to the 31st of December, 1S64, the day when 
its existence would terminate by law. 

The people approved this brave and patriotic movement of their 
Governor, and in the following year elected a Legislature in sympa- 
thy with the country, and in harmony with the soldiers who were 
fighting her battles. 

This Legislature elected Richard Yates to the Senate of the United 
States — a suitable reward to one whose ability and patriotism had 
contributed bo largely to the honor of Illinois. During his adminis- 
tration a peaceful agricultural State, with scarcely a professional 
soldier within her limits, had grown to be one of the mightiest mili- 
tarv commonwealths in history. Her army of two hundred and fifty 
thousand men, raised during the administration of Governor Yates, 
from the farms and shops of Illinois, was unsurpassed in effect i 
and valor. It was partly owing to the pride which the Governor 
took in the advancement of the soldiers of his State that so many of 
them had risen to high and distinguished rank as officers of the 
army. With honest pride the Governor said in his final message : 
"In response to calls for troops the State stands pre-eminently in tin- 
lead among her loyal sisters, and every click of the telegraph heralds 
the perseverance of Illinois generals and the indomitable courage and 
bravery of Illinois sons in every engagement of the war. The his- 
tory of the war is brilliant with recitations of the skill and powers of 
our general, field, staff, and line officers. The list of promotions from 
the field and staff officers of our regiments to lieutenant and major- 
generals for gallant conduct and the pre-requi-ites for efficient and 
successful command, compare brilliantly with the names supplied by 
all other States; and the patient, vigilant, and tenacious record made 
by our veteran regiments in the camp, on the inarch, and in the field, 
is made a subject of praise by the whole country, and will be the 

theme for poets and historians of all lands for all time." 
105 



6 RICHARD YATES. 

Mr. Yates took Lis seat in the Senate of the United States on the 
4th of March, 1865, in time to aid in the complete restoration of the 
Union he had elsewhere assisted to save. 

He immediately took rank among the foremost of those who have 
been denominated " Radicals." lie annoxinced himself as standing 
npon the broad principle " that all citizens, without distinction of 
race, color, or condition, should be protected in the enjoyment and 
exercise of all their civil and political rights." His faith in the final 
triumph of this principle was unwavering. On the 14th of February, 
1866, Mr. Yates pronounced a speech of three hours' duration on a 
proposed Constitutional Amendment changing the basis of represen- 
tation. " It is too late," he eloquently said on that occasion, " it is 
too late to change the tide of human progress." 

Mr. Yates is one of the most popidar orators of the country. Im- 
pelled by a warm humanitarianism and glowing imagination, he passes 
rapidly by dry technicalities and abstract theories to those grand 
and glowing deductions which the patriot delights to contemplate. 
He possesses a melodious voice, a graceful manner, with a ready and 
even rapid utterance. In person he is of medium hight, with a face 
which in his early years possessed a beauty quite uncommon among 
men of mark. 

106 




O O& o&-^cl^j£> 






CHARLES D. DRAKE. 



«5fJKp>HE border States, upon the breaking out of the rebellion, 
tj||i were for a time the scene of severe conflict- between loy- 
■ /"f^ alty and treason; and during the whole progress of the 
war, only the presence of the military power of the Government 
secured the supremacy of the former. This condition of things 
brought out into prominence many men who had before taken little 
part in public affairs, and who did not enter the military service. 
A.mong these was Charles I). Drake, of Missouri. lie was born in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 11th of April, 1811, being the son of Daniel 
Drake, M.D., of that city, for many years eminent as a practitioner 
and teacher of medicine. 

Mr. Drake's education was mainly received in the ordinary schools 
of the West. The only institutions of a higher grade which he 
attended were St. Joseph College, Bardstown, Kentucky, and 
Captain Partridge's Military Academy, Middletown, Connecticut. 
While at the latter, in April, 1S27, he was appointed a Midshipman 
in the Navy, and in the following November entered upon active 
duty, and remained in the Navy until January, 1830, when he 
retired from the service and began the study of the law. He was 
admitted to the Cincinnati bar in 1S33, and the next year removed 
to St. Louis, then a town of seven thousand five hundred inhabitants. 
In 1S3S, he originated the St. Louis Law Library, now one of the 
most valuable in the country, and for more than twenty-one years 
was one of its Directors. 

Mr. Drake's first appearance in public life was in 1859, when he 
was elected to the House of Representatives of Missouri, to fill a 
vacancy. 

107 



2 CHARLES D. DRAKE. 

Iii I860, he, for the first time since 1844, took part in politics, 
espousing the cause of Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency, as a 
means of preventing the Electoral vote of Missouri from being cast 
for John C. Breckinridge. In August of that year, lie delivered a 
speech at Victoria, in which the treasonable designs of the Southern 
States were exposed and denounced, and which, it was generally con- 
ceded, was the means of gaining the vote of Missouri for Mr. 
Douglas. 

From the secession of South Carolina, Mr. Drake's course was 
open and pronounced against secession and rebellion. By speech 
and pen he labored for the Union cause, and it was in connection 
with those labors that he became prominent in Missouri and before 
the country. 

In January, 1861, lie delivered a speech in the Hall of Represen- 
tatives of Missouri, in the presence of many members of the Legis- 
lature who were then plotting the secession of Missouri ; in which 
he took the highest ground of unconditional loyalty to the Constitu- 
tion and the Union. 

On the following Fourth of July he delivered an elaborately pre- 
pared speech at Louisiana. Mo., upon all the issues of the hour; 
which was extensively published at the time, and was preserved in 
the "Rebellion Record." The concluding words of this speech were 
as follow- : 

"We are lost if our Constitution is overthrown. Thenceforward 
we may bid farewell to liberty. Never were truer or greater words 
uttered by an American statesman, than when Daniel Webster closed 
his great speech in defense of the Constitution, nearly thirty years 
ago, with that sublime exclamation: 'Liberty and Union, now and 
for ever, one and inseparable!' Union gave us liberty, disunion 
would take it away. lie who strikes at the Union, strikes at the 
heart of the Nation. Shall not the Nation defend its life? And 
when the children of the Union come to its rescue, shall they be 
denounced I And if denounced, will they quail before the mere 
breath of the Union's foe., ? For one, I shrink not from any words 



CHARLES D. DRAKE 3 

of man, save those which would justly impute to me disloyalty to the 
Union and the Constitution. My country is all to me; hut it is no 
country without the Constitution which has exalted and glorified it. 
For the preservation of that Constitution I shall not cease to struggle; 
and my life-long prayer will he, God save the Asierica.v Union !" 
On the 22d of February, 1S0-2, he delivered, in St. Louis, an 
Address, in which he denounced Slavery a- the can-.- of the rebellion, 
and used these word- : 

•• Let it once he manifest that we are shut up to choose between 
(.in- uoble country, with it- priceless Constitution, and Slavery, then, 
with every fiber of my heart and everj energy of my nature. I will 
pass along the universal cry of all patriots — Down with Slavery for 
ever! I would then no more hesitate which to choose, than, in view 
of death, I would balance between eternal life and eternal perdition." 
This Address was followed, at interval-, by others, during the 
progress of the rebellion, exposing its true character and aims, and 
denouncing Slavery as its sole cause. They were all gathered and 
published in a volume in 1864 

In 1S63, Mr. Drake was elected a member, from St. Louis, of the 
Missouri State Convention, which was constituted in 1861, and which 
re-assembled in June, 1863, in pursuance of a proclamation of the 
Governor of the State, "to consult and act upon the subject of the 
emancipation of slaves." In that body he took ground in favor of 
immediate emancipation; but the Convention adopted a scheme so 
gradual as hardly to terminate Slavery before the year 1000. Mr. 
Drake, in a vigorous canvass, assailed it before the people ; whence 
followed the rise of the "Kadical" party in Missouri, of which he 
has for more than five years been the acknowledged leader. 

In September, 1S63, a delegation of seventy men from all parts 
of Missouri visited President Lincoln at Washington, to inform him 
of the actual condition of parties and affairs in Missouri. Mr. Drake 
was chairman of that body. Its address to the President attracted 
the attention of the people, and gave no inconsiderable impulse to 
Radicalism in all the loyal States. 
109 



4 CHARLES D. DRAKE. 

Ill February, 1864, a Freedom Convention was held in Louisville. 
Ky.j which Mr. Drake attended, and which he addressed on Washing 
ton's Birth-day, in a speech -which attracted much notice and com 
mendation from all parts of the country. The following are the 
concluding words of that address : 

" The issue, upon one side or the other, of which every man in the 
nation must he ranged, is fully made up, between that Radicalism 
which will venture all, do all, and brave all for the Union and 
Freedom, and that Conservatism which, assuming loyalty, hangs 
back from the advanced positions of patriotism ; professes enmity to 
Slavery, and yet cringes to it ; avows hostility to treason, and yet 
counts traitors for partisan ends ; ever finds something strong and 
resolute, which it were wise not to venture — something prompt and 
effective, that had better not be done — something daring and aggres- 
sive, which it is discretion not to be brave ; and is content to stake 
less than all for country, that it may more cheaply win all for //.v. If. 
When between two such forces the country's safety hangs, it is time 
that the banner of Radicalism were unfurled beyond the narrow 
limits of Missouri. The nation should behold it. Why not raise it 
here ? And why not on this birth-day of Washington ! Is there 
any better place or day I We have come to fling it to the breeze, 
and to plant it in the front rank, and we will do it. It is no paltry 
ensign of sectionalism, no drabbled banner of party, but the grand 
old standard of the Republic, with every broad stripe still firm and 
unstained ; and look ! with one more star in its azure field, than when 
treason struck at the beaming constellation; and that one riven, 
with her own blood-stained hand, from once brilliant, now poor, dis- 
membered, fallen ' Old Virginia ! ' And see ! its spreading folds 
reveal an inscription, inwoven in letters of gold, flashing in the 
orient sunlight ! What are the words ? Read them, ye downcast 
and oppressed, for they speak hope and cheer to you ; read them, 
friends of Freedom, for they tell you of a brighter day ; read them, 
champions of Slavery, for they proclaim your discomfiture ; read them, 
traitors, for they thunder anathemas to you, as they say — ' The Union 

no 



CHARLES I). DRAKE. 5 

without a slave; the Constitution amended to forbid Slavery for 
ever; and the arms of the Nation to uphold that Union and that 
Constitution to the latest generation ! ' " 

In November, IStU, a new convention was elected in Missouri, to 
revise and amend the constitution of that State, and Mr. Drake was 
chosen one of its members from St. Louis County, and upon its 
assembling, in January, 1865, was made its vice president, and soon 
became its acknowledged leader. \\y thai body slavery in Missouri 
was abolished on the 11th of that month. The convention was in 
session three months, and formed the presenl constitution of that 
State. In its formation 50 large a part was taken by Mr. Drake that 
he became more prominently identified with it than any other member 
of that body. 

Mr. Drake was elected to the Senate of the United States in January, 
1S67, and took his seat in that body on the ensuing 4th of March. 

In the subsequent consideration of the measures of reconstruction, 
he took a decidedly Radical stand ; as, indeed, he had at all times 
taken on all questions relating to the suppression of the rebellion. 
His resolute adherence to Radical principles and policies was expressed 
in a published letter to Reverdy Johnson in November, 1S0»7. in which 
he said : 

"Here, Senator, at the close, as in the outset, we diverge. Cling, 
if you please, to purblind, droning, effete conservatism, and drift with 
it into the realms of the rejected and forgotten ; but I will hold on to 
living, clear-sighted, resolute, and progressive Radicalism, be its 
fate what it may. If Americans, in this the meridian of their military 
renown, have not courage, persistence, and nerve to uphold such 
Radicalism as upheld and saved their country in the day of its 
deadliest peril, they will only exhibit a dishonoring example of a 
people unsurpassed in martial valor and achievement, but too timid 
for great civil conflicts, too feeble for sharp moral exigencies, too fickle 
for earnest struggles for the right, and too small for the mold of a 
grand and noble destiny." 

Participating in the discussion of the Supplementary Reconstruc- 



6 CHARLES D. DRAKE. 

tion bill in the Senate, Mr. Drake earnestly advocated the substitu- 
tion of voting by ballot for the method which had prevailed through- 
out the South of voting viva voce, and said : 

" Once get the mode of voting by ballot fairly into the hands of a 
majority of the people down there, and they will be very likely to 
take care of it ; but what I want is, that while this nation is under- 
taking to reconstruct these States upon the principle of loyalty to the 
Union, upon the principle of protecting the loyal people, the work 
shall be done thoroughly. Sir, I came from a State where we have 
dealt with this rebellion in some of its foulest aspects ; and we have 
learned there, through a long and bitter experience, that the only way 
to deal with it is to apply the knife deep and strong down to the very 
fibers of the roots, leave not a single atom in which to germinate a 
future rebellion. I came here. Sir — I do not hesitate to avow in open 
Senate on the first occasion when I have undertaken to address this 
august body, that I came here as a representative, not of a conserva- 
tive radicalism, but of a radical radicalism, which believes in doing, 
and not in half doing." 

112 




HENRY W. CORBETT. 



rg'l^KNJiY \Y. COKBETT was born al Westboro, Massachu- 
setts, February I s , L827. His father, Elijah Corbett, estab- 
lished one of the first ax manufactories in Massachusetts. 
In 1832, lie removed to White Creek, New Fork, and subsequently 
settled in the town of Jackson, Washington County, New York. At 
the age of thirteen, Henry entered upon a clerkship in a store at 
Cambridge, New York, on a salary of fifty dollars a year. Here lie 
remained two years, ami about nine months of the time attended the 
Cambridge Academy. The following year he was a clerk in the 
establishment of Proudfit & Fitch, Salem, "Washington County, New 
York. 

In the spring of 1843, he went to New York City with letters of 
recommendation from his former employers, to enter upon a new- 
life in the great metropolis. After much effort, he succeede'd in ob- 
taining a situation in a retail dry-goods store, his salary being S3 50 
per week, out of which he paid his board, and slept on the counter. 
After remaining in this position for one year, he succeeded in obtain- 
ing a situation in a wholesale dry -goods store in Cedar Street, 
New York, where he continued as long as the firm remained in trade. 
In the fall of 1855, he was offered a situation in the dry-goods house 
of Williams, Bradford & Co. He remained with this firm until he 
conceived the idea of shipping a stock of goods to the Territory of 
Oregon. In the fall of 1S50, lie informed his employers that he desired 
to embark in this enterprise ; and he proposed to them, if they would 
join him in the enterprise, he would divide the profits with them. 
They inquired ol him what he knew of the country and its prospects. 



2 HENRY W. CORBETT. 

They found him thoroughly informed on all points, and so implicitly 
did they believe in the success of any enterprise that his judgment 
approved, that they at once furnished him with a stock of goods, and 
cash tn the amount of $24,000 — a large amount of credit for a young 
man whose capital amounted to only $1,000, from his savings. After 
an absence of a year and a half, he returned to New York, repaid the 

824. J— then divided his profits of $20,000 with those who assisted 

him. He was offered a co-partnership with his friends in New York, 
which lie declined. 

In February, 1853, he was married to Miss Cara E. Jagger, of 
Albany, New York ; and in the following May he returned to Port- 
land, Oregon, where he resumed his business, and was greatly pros- 
pered. 

He now has an extensive wholesale hardware house m Portland, 
having two resident partners in that place, and one in New York. 
All his business enterprises have been attended with marked success, 
which his strict integrity and untiring energy have well deserved. 

Mr. Corbett has been largely interested in many of the great enter- 
prises for the development of Oregon, such as the establishment of 
manufactories of woolen goods, the erection of furnaces for the manu- 
facture of iron, and the building of steamboats. 

In 1S66, he took the contract for carrying the daily mail from 
Lincoln, California, to Portland, Oregon, a distance of six hundred 
and twenty-four miles, stocked the road with four-horse teams and 
coaches, to the great satisfaction of the community. 

In politics, Mr. Corbett was in early life a "Whig. On the oigani- 
zation of the Republican party of Oregon in 18G0, he was chosen 
chairman of the Eepublican State Central Committee. The energy 
with which this campaign was conducted, reduced the Democratic 
maj< »rity from about twenty-five hundred to thirteen. Hon. D. Logan, 
the Republican candidate for Congress, was defeated by only this small 
majority. 

On the breaking out of the war, Mr. Corbett saw the importance 

of uniting all loyal men under the name of the LTnion party, for the 
lit 



HENRY \V. CORBETT. 3 

purposeof crushing out the party of Secession in the State. B 
prompt action of the Republican Central Committee in making a 
callj early in 1SG2, for all Union men to join them in a ( invention, to 
be held at Eugene City, the peril of the State was averted. Mr. 
Corbett was an active member of that convention, and was instrumen- 
tal in nominating a ticket that carried the State by about twenty- 
seven thousand majority. During the war he was active in raising 
money for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and contributed 
liberally for these as well as other worthy objects. 

Mr. Corbett was chosen as oneof the delegates to the Chicago Con- 
vention of 1860, that nominated Mr.Lincoln forthe Presidency. lie 
was a member of the Republican National Convention of 1868, which 
nominated Grant and Colfax. 

Fully absorbed in his extensive business, and in his efforl 
promote the success of the Union party in his State. Mr. Corbett 
has not been an ardent aspirant forpolitical preferment. For some 
years he served the City of Portland as a member of its Council, and 
held the office of Citj Treasurer. On the 20th of September, L866, 
he was elected a Senator of the United States. 

In the Senate, Mr. Corbett has devoted himself with conscientious 
faithfulness to the discharge of his important duties. He ha- given 
much patient thought to the great financial questions which are now 
demanding attention. On these important topics he has delivered 
several speeches, which are marked by sound reasoning and wise de- 
ductions. On the 11th of March, 1868, he addressed the Senate on the 
Funding Bill, concluding his remarks as follows : 

•• When we look to the future of this great Republic, embracing 
twenty-three degrees in longitude by fifty-seven degrees of latitude, 
with all varieties of climate, producing the most delicate and delicious 
fruits of the South, with abundance <>t' the more substantial produc- 
tions of the temperate /.one, and the hardy production- 1 if the North — 
when we contemplate this vast and varied country, its climate, its 
production for the sustenance, comfort, and luxury of man, the vast 
resources of all its varied hidden riches of the earth, comprising metals 



4 HEXKY VV. CORBETT. 

for all the most substantial and useful arts of life, with all the most 
precious metals to tempt the cupidity of man ; test the bowels of the 
earth, it sends forth its fatness in living- streams of oil like the peren- 
nial fountain ; add to these our beds of coal, our forests of timber, our 
mountains of iron, where is its equal? Have we the capacity to 
make them useful \ —who doubts it ? With all the thousands of in- 
ventors, combining the greatest inventive genius of the world, we can 
outstrip all other nations combined. A population from every land 
and nation under the sun, a land now happily free from the oppres- 
sor's rod, to be rebuilt upon a firm and enduring foundation, made 
sacred and cemented by the blood of a million of our noblest sons. 

" Therefore, let us not crown this temple, hewn by the sweat of so 
many brows, reared by the blood of so many brave lads, with tin- 
cap-stone of repudiation. Let us do nothing, as a great and noble 
and suffering people, that shall detract from the honor of those that 
lie silent and cold in their blood-bought graves, with naught but 
their country's banner over them. To me, Mr. President, my duty i- 
plain ; my duty to the men that came forward to supply our suffering 
army, to succor our noble boys in the day of the national darkness 
and despair, and to the capitalists of Germany, of Frankfort, that 
took our securities, and spewed out the rebel bonds, and gave to us 
money, the sinew of war, to assist us in maintaining the life of the 
nation. I need not the example of other nations to tell me what is 
right between man and man or between nation and nation ; it needs 
not the shrewd argument of a lawyer to tell me what is due to my 
creditor. If there is any one thing that I regard more sacred in life, 
after my duty to my God, it is to fulfill all my engagements, both 
written and implied, and nothing shall drive me from this position. 

" If this be important and right in private affairs, how much more 
important in public affairs." 

116 








n. 



REYERDY JOILXSOX. 



ffpQuNE of the few remaining statesmen of the times who link 
'A%J/ the present with the past, i- Reveedt Johnson, Senator 
S&\ from Maryland. John Johnson, his father, was an emi- 
nent lawyer, who held the offices of Attorney General, Judge 
of the Court of Appeals, and Chancellor of Maryland. His 
mother was of French ancestry. The name of her family, 
Eevardi, is perpetuated, with a slight orthographic alteration 
in that of her distinguished son. 

Eeverdy Johnson was horn in Annapolis, Maryland, May 
21, 1790. He entered the Primary Department of St. John's 
College, in his native town, when six years old. Here he 
pursued his studies for ten years. At the age of sixteen he 
left the institution without graduating, yet having pursued a 
thorough course of classical and mathematical training. 

On leaving college, he commenced the study of the law, 
under the direction of his father. 

One day, as the young law-student was poring over his 
hooks, news came that the British were about to make an 
attack on Washington. The whole community was aroused, 
and a company of volunteers was hastily formed to aid in 
defending the Capital. Young Johnson joined them on such 
a sudden impulse that he did not stop to put off the slippers 
which he wore in the law-office ; and the consequence was 
that, before he had marched half-way to Washington, he 
was completely barefoot. The company reached the neighbor- 
hood of Washington in time to participate in the battle of 
Bladensburg, on the 24th of August, 1814. Soon after this 



2 It EVER DY JOUNSON. 

engagement young Johnson was attacked with a serious illness, 
which put a sudden termination to his military history. 

Having resumed his law studies, Eeverdy Johnson was 
admitted to the har in 1815, and was soon after appointed 
Deputy Attorney General for Prince George's and St. Mary's 
counties. 

In 1817 he removed to Baltimore, and while engaged in 
an extensive practice of the law, held the office of Chief Com- 
missioner of Insolvent Debtors. 

In addition to regular professional and official duties, he 
was, during a number of years, partially occupied in the 
literary labor of reporting judicial decisions, which were pub- 
lished in seven volumes, under the title of " Johnson's Mary- 
land Reports." 

In 1821 he was elected to the State Senate of Maryland 
for a term of five years, and was re-elected for a second term, 
but resigned after serving two years. 

During twenty years which followed, he gave his undivided 
attention to professional business. In legal learning and skill 
he reached a rank and reputation unsurpassed in the American 
Bar. He was employed in arguing many important cases 
before the Supreme Court of the United States. His services 
were sought in distant portions of the United States and in 
Europe. He made journeys to New Orleans and California, 
to try important cases. On one occasion he went to England, 
as attorney in an important case which involved a heavy claim 
against the Government of the United States. 

In 1833 Mr. Jonxsox met with an accident, which resulted 
in a partial loss of his eyesight. Mr. Stanley, a member of 
Congress from North Carolina, having been challenged to fight 
a duel by Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, went to Mr. Johnson's 
residence, near Baltimore, for the purpose of preparing for the 
conflict. He requested Mr. Johnson to assist him in some 
preparatory practice with his pistol. Mr. Stanley succeeding 



REVERDY JOHNSON. 3 

very badly in his practice, Mr. Johnson took the pistol, and 
fired at a small locust tree, about ten feet distant. He struck 
the target, but the ball rebounded and entered his left eye. 
A surgeon was summoned, and the bullet was extracted ; but 
the sight of the eye was lost. 

Mr. Johnson was a Whig in politics; yet, when the memo- 
rable Presidential contest of 1824 was narrowed down to a 
choice between Jackson and Adams, he favored the election of 
the former. He frankly told Mr. Clay, whose warm friend 
he was, that the great political error of his life was casting 
his influence for Adams instead of Jackson. 

In 1815 Mr. Johnson was elected a United States Senator 
from Maryland, and, differing from a majority of his party, he 
favored the Mexican war. On the accession of General Taylor 
to the Presidency, in 1819, Mr. Johnson was appointed Attor- 
ney General of the United States, whereupon he resigned his 
seat in the Senate. On the death of President Taylor, he 
resigned his office, and resumed his private practice. 

When the wicked policy of the Southern leaders had led 
the people to the verge of rebellion, Mr. Johnson, although in 
private life, did not fail to raise his voice and use his influ- 
ence against the heresy of secession. In December, 1860, at 
the close of an argument before the Supreme Court, he pro- 
nounced one of the most eloquent eulogies on the Union, and 
presented one of the most thrilling delineations of the wicked- 
ness and folly involved in its overthrow, to be found in the 
annals of American oratory. 

On the 10th of January, 1861, when Maryland was poised 
between loyalty and rebellion, Mr. Johnson addressed an assem- 
blage of many thousands of the citizens of Baltimore, in an 
overwhelming argument against the crime of secession. He 
administered a withering rebuke to South Carolina, which he 
characterized as "that gallant State of vast pretensions, but 
little power." "If," said he, "the cannon maintains the 



4 EEVEEDY JOUNSON. 

honor of our standard, and blood is shed in its defence, it 
will he because the United States cannot permit its surrender 
without indelible disgrace and foul abandonment of duty." 

This speech gave Mr. Johnson rank among the foremost 
defenders of the Union. In 18G2 the Legislature of Maryland 
elected him as a Union man to the United States Senate, in 
which he took his seat in March, 1863. 

Mr. Johnson has been one of the most faithful and laborious 
members of the Senate. He has generally acted with the mi- 
nority, and yet has frequently shown that he is not bound by 
party trammels. In March, 1864, he gave his vote in favor of 
the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. 

As a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, in 
the Tbirty-Ninth Congress, he generally opposed the views of 
the majority and favored the immediate re-admission of the 
Southern States. 

He opposed what was called the " Military Reconstruction 
Bill" when it was under discussion in the Senate, but when 
it was returned with the President's objections, he spoke and 
voted in favor of its final passage over the veto, as the mildest 
terms which the South were likely to obtain. He regarded it 
as the means through which the South might be "rescued and 
restored ere long to prosperity and a healthful condition, and 
the free institutions of our country preserved." 

Mr. Johxson is of medium stature, with such a build of body 
as indicates great physical endurance. His countenance habit- 
ually wears a sober, serious expression, seldom relaxing into a 
smile. He possesses agreeable manners, combined with a dig- 
nity appropriate to his venerable age and high position. As a 
speaker, his manner attracts and retains the attention, which 
his matter abundantly repays. He enters with zeal into what- 
ever subject of discussion deserves his attention and demands 
his utterance. 

120 



JOHN M. THAYER. 



8 OHN MILTON THAYER was bom in Bellingham, Massa- 
chusetts, January 24, 1820. He graduated at Brown Uni- 
versity, and studied law. In 1854, he emigrated to Ne- 
braska, and settled there simultaneously with the organization of the 
Territory, selecting Omaha as the place of his residence. 

Indian difficulties shortly after occurring, the Governor organized the 
militia, and appointed Mr. Thayer Brigadier-General, and gave him 
the command of the force. The Legislature, at its ensuing session, 
created the office of Major-General, and elected him as the incumbent. 
He was frequently selected to go as Commissioner to the Indians, 
for the purpose of stopping their hostilities, and, on several occasions,' 
commanded expeditions against them. 

From his youth, Mr. Thayer was imbued with the spirit of Anti- 
Slavery, and hence he early espoused the principles and course of 
the Republican party. In 1859, he was elected a member of the 
Convention for framing a State Constitution. Though an ardent 
Republican, he received this election from a county strongly Demo- 
cratic — having the highest vote on the ticket. 

In 1860, Mr. Thayer was elected to the higher branch of the 
Territorial Legislature. On the breaking out of the Rebellion, he 
applied immediately to the War Department for authority to raise a 
regiment of volunteers, and was instrumental in rallying the First 
Nebraska Infantry. Of this Regiment he was made Colonel, and 
served with it in Missouri during the first six months of the "War. 
His regiment, with others, was selected by General Ilalleck to pro- 
ceed to Fort Henry. On reaching that place. General Grant assigned 
to Colonel Thayer command of all the reinforcements which were 
121 



o JOHN M. THAYER. 

arriving, and sent him down the Tennessee, and up the Cumberland, 
to Fort Donelson, while General Grant himself marched across by 
land. Colonel Thayer was then placed in command of the Second 
Brigade in General Lew Wallace's Division, and was engaged in the 
hardest of the fighting on the last day of the battle. 

At the battle of Shiloh, Colonel Thayer had command of the 
extreme right, and for good conduct received the strong commenda- 
tions of his commanders, and was made Brigadier-General. 

A prominent share in the great struggles of the War seems to 
have fallen to General Thayer. He led one of the storming columns 
at Chickesau Bayou ; his horse was shot under him at Arkansas 
Fost; he was through all the seige of Vicksburg, anil was at the first 
and second capture of Jackson. Mississippi. He was afterward 
placed in command of the " Army of the Frontier," and with it 
participated in the battles of Prairie de Ann, Jenkin's Ferry, and 
other engagements. He was made a Brevet Major-General for " dis- 
tinguished services." 

On returning to his State, after the close of the War, General 
Thayer was elected a United States Senator for the term expiring in 
1871. 

Mr. Thayer belongs to that class of legislators who, while not given 
to much speaking, are yet prompt and ready to speak whenever ne- 
cessity or the public service requires it, From his long residence 
near the frontier, and the varied intercourse he has had with the In- 
dian tribes, probably no member of the Senate possesses a more ex- 
tensive knowledge of matters pertaining to these savage people than 
General Thayer. Hence his speeches bearing upon the Indian ques- 
tion have a special interest for those less familiar than himself with 
their sentiments and character. We are impressed, as we read and 
ponder these speeches, that though brief and unpretending, they are, 
however, the words of a man who knows whereof he affirms, and tes- 
tifies of that which he has seen. u Mr. President," he says, in one of 
these addresses, " I rise simply to correct two misapprehensions of the 
Senator from Maine, [Mr. Morrill,] into which he has been led. He 



JOHN M. THAYER. 3 

asks, where is there an Indian reservation which is not invaded to- 
day by the white people? Well, I respond to him by stating thai 
there are five Indian reservations within the State of Nebraska, be- 
tween which and the whites there has been the most perfect accord 
and friendship for the seven years past, not the slightest interference 
or collision between the Indians upon these reservations and the 
white settlers. That is my answer to his interrogatory. These 
troubles do not arise with the friendly Indian-, but with the hostile 
Indians, who are away beyond Nebraska and Kansas, upon the plains, 
whose lands have not been invaded by the whites. Those who have 
committed these outrages and these murders are not the Indians 
whose lands have been interfered with by the whites. They arc 
those who have come from their own section of the country 
down to the two Pacific Railroads, and there is where they are creating 
the difficulty. It is simply a question between civilization and bar- 
barism. They are opposed to those two Pacific Railroads, and that 
i-, after all, the real cause of the trorible." 

In another speech, several days afterward, on the same general sub- 
ject, Mr. Thayer remarked as follows : 

" The Indians are opposed to the building of these two Roads 
(Pacific Railroads). There is no mistake about it. I have heard it 
from them myself. The reason they object is, that it cuts in two 
their buffalo range. The buffalo range, in certain seasons of the year, 
extends from away north of Nebraska down toward the Red River, 
and they think the Road will interfere with that. One Indian chief 
expressed his objection in this way : ' We do not object to the horse 
going through our country that goes so,' imitating in his manner the 
galloping of a horse ; ' but,' he added, ' we do object to the horse that 
goes so,' imitating the noise of a steam-engine. That was his ex- 
pressive way of giving utterance to his objection. 

" The difficulty is, that the Indians do not like these Roads ; and, 
hence, I have favored this bill, which proposes to open these two 
lines of road by taking the Indians away, and putting them on reser- 
vations to the north and to the south. * * * 
123 



4 JOHN M. THAYER. 

When the Senate was preparing to proceed with the Impeachment 
Trial, Mr. Hendricks objected to Mr. Wade's being sworn, on the 
ground that being " interested, in view of his possible connection 
with the office, in the result of the proceedings, he was not compe- 
tent to sit as a member of the court." Mr. Thayer spoke in answer 
to this objection, and from his remarks on the occasion, we make the 
following extract : 

" I challenge the honorable Senator from Indiana to point me to one 
iota in the Constitution which recognizes the right of this body to de- 
prive any individual Senator of his vote. No matter what opinions 
we may entertain as to the propriety of the honorable Senator from 
Ohio casting a vote on this question, he is here as a Senator, and 
you cannot take away his right to vote except by a gross usurpation 
of power. He is here as a Senator in the possession and exercise of 
every right of a Senator until you expel him by a vote of two-thirds 
of this body. Then he ceases to have those rights, and not till 
then. * * In courts of law, if objections are made to any one 

sitting upon a jury, and he is excluded, an officer is sent out into the 
streets and the highways to pick up talesmen and bring them in to 
fill up the jury. Can you do that here ? Suppose you exclude the 
honorable Senator from Ohio, can you send an officer of this Senate 
out into the lobbies or into the streets of Washington to bring in a 
man to take his place? By no means. I need not state that. 

" Thus I come back to the proposition that we are a Senate, com- 
posed of constituent members, two from every State, sworn to do 
our duty as Senators of the United States ; and when you attempt 
to exclude a Senator from the performance of that duty, you assume 
functions which are not known in the Constitution, and cannot for a 
moment be recognized. When you attempt to exercise the power, 
and do exercise it, are you any longer the Senate of the United 
States ? The Senate, no other parties or bodies forming any part of 
it, is the only body known to the Constitution of the United States 
for this purpose, and the Senate is composed of two Senators from 
each State." 

13-1 





'^€*%z^ 



JAMES ^Y. PATTERSON. 



"AMES W. PATTEItSCXN was born in Eenniker, a small 
farming town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Jul 
2, 1S23. His father was a direct descendant of William 
Duncan and Naomi Bell, from whom originated some of the most 
superior men which New Hampshire has produced. The subject of 
this sketch was, however, bom in poverty, and inured to toil ami 
hardship. 

When eight years of age he went with his family to Lowell, Mass., 
where he remained until lie was thirteen. In L 83 6, he went hack 
with the family to his native town, and subsequently tor two years 
worked on a farm, in winter attending the academy in Heuniker 
village, two miles and a half distant. In 1S3G, he returned to 
Lowell, and obtained employment in a cotton mill. The agent of 
the mill, John Aiken, Esq., a gentleman of penetration, practiced in 
reading character, soon took him from the mill into his counting 
room, where he continued two years. While in this position he was 
a leading member of a debating society, conducted at that period with 
great spirit by the young men of Lowell. It seems to have been 
largely due to the aspirations awakened by this society, that, with the 
approbation of his friend Mr. Aiken, he resigned his place in the 
counting room, for the purpose of seeking a liberal education. In 
the ensuing winter he taught a district school in his native place, and 
in the spring of 184-2, went to the city of Manchester, where his 
parents then resided, and there entered with all his energies upon his 
preparation for college. The study of a single year, with little or no 
instruction, sufficed to fit him for college. In 1844. at the age of 



;! JAMES W. PATTERSON. 

twenty-one, lie entered Dartmouth College, and graduated with the 
first honors of his class in 1848. Subsequently for two years he was 
in charge of an academy in AVoodstock, Conn., and at the same time 
he was pursuing a course of study with a view to the profession of 
the law. But becoming an intimate friend of Henry Ward Beecher, 
who at that period was accustomed to spend his vacations in Con- 
necticut, he was induced through his influence to turn his attention 
to theology. In 1S51, he entered the Theological Seminary at New 
Haven, of which the illustrious Dr. Taylor was then the leading 
spirit. In a single year he completed the prescribed studies of two, 
at the same time teaching in a ladies' seminary to pay his expenses. 

From the Theological Seminary, Mr. Patterson was called back to 
Dartmouth College as tutor; and when the chair of Mathematics 
became vacant by the resignation of Prof. John S. Woodman, he was 
elected to that professorship. Subsequently, on the re-organization 
of the Departments, he was assigned to the chair of Astronomy and 
Meteorology, which he filled with conspicuous ability. 

From 1858 to 1861, he was a member of the State Board of 
Education, and, as its Secretary, had the leading part of the work to 
do in preparing the Annual State Reports on Education. His duty 
as School Commissioner required him to address the people in various 
parts of the State, on the subject of Common School Education. 
The ability displayed by Mr. Patterson in these addresses, attracted 
the attention of the people, and caused them to demand his services 
in the wider fields of politics and statesmanship. 

In 1S62, he was sent to the State Legislature as a Representative 
of Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College. His reputation and 
talents at once gave him a commanding position in that body. 

In the spring of 18C3, Mr. Patterson was elected a Representative 
from Xew Hampshire in the Thirty-eighth Congress. He was 
appointed on the Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, and on that for the District of Columbia. In 1864, he was 
appointed a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1S65, he was 
re-elected to Congress, serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 



.1 A M E S \\ r . P A T T E R S N 3 

ami on a Special Committee on a Department of Education. In 
June, 1866, he was elected United States Senator for the term ending 
in 1873, and is now serving on the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
and that on the District of Columbia. 

hi the popular branch of Congress, Mr. Patterson more than justi- 
fied the high expectations which his entrance into that body awakened. 
His duties as a member of the Committee on the Districl of Columbia 
immediately made him acquainted with leading public interests and 
the prominent business men of Washington, and it is safe to say that 
from then till now there has been no member of either branch of 
( longress above him in the esteem and confidence oi all classes in the 
District. His lively interest in free schools has especially won for him 
the regards of all connected with that cause in the District. To him 
belongs the honor of drafting and maturing the excellent existing 
School haw of tlie District, providing for the free education of all 
the children, without distinction of color, and placing the colored 
schools upon the same basis with the white schools. A crude bill 
looking to this result was presented at the time to the Senate Com- 
mittee on the District of Columbia ; but such was the deference to 
Mr. Patterson in such matters, that the bill was sent to the House 
Committee, of which he was then Chairman, with the understanding 
that he. should draft a School haw covering that whole subject. 
From his first entrance into Congress, he has been recognized by the 
people of the District as the special champion of education, and has 
frequently been called upon to promote this cause by public addresses. 
At the inauguration of the Wallach School House, the first free 
school edifice worthy of the cause erected in the National capital, 
July 4, 1S63, Mr. Patterson delivered an address, which is one of the 
best, as well as one of the earliest of his efforts in furtherance of 
education in the District. 

Among the best specimens of Mr. Patterson's eloquence, is his 

eulogy upon the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, delivered 

at Concord, New Hampshire, June 3, 1865, at the request of the 

State authorities. This discourse delineates the wonderful character 

137 



4 JAMES W. PATTERSON. 

of the illustrious martyr with remarkable discrimination and compre- 
hensiveness, while it often rises to the highest style of this species of 
commemorative eloquence. The following paragraph doubtless owes 
something of its terse and truthful brevity to the fact that the orator 
was enunciating the results of stern personal experience. He says 
of President Lincoln : 

" Poverty brought labor and habits of industry ; privations gave 
a broad experience and sympathy with those who eat bread in the 
sweat of their brows ; the irrepressible impulses of a mind conscious 
of strength, induced study and thought. These were the sources of 
that intelligence, that tender sensibility to the misfortunes and sor- 
rows of the humblest citizen, and that large executive ability which 
characterized his subsequent career." 

Perhaps the ablest, most finished, and most eloquent of all his pub- 
lished discourses is that which he pronounced on the " Responsibili- 
ties of Republics," August 29, 1865, at Fort Popham, Me., on the 
25Sth Anniversary of the planting of the Popham Colony. A single 
passage taken almost at random is here introduced. After a com- 
pact and philosophical statement of the fundamental ideas comprised 
in the American system, and of the process by which those ideas 
were developed into a Government, the orator adds : 

" But the end is not yet. AVe, too, have work to do ; for the foun- 
dations of the republic are not yet completed. "We cannot escape 
the responsibility of those who build for posterity. The great archi- 
tects of our system reared the framework, and other generations have 
labored faithfully and successfully upon it. The star-lit flag which 
symbolizes its existence, more beautiful than the pearly gates of morn- 
ing closed with bars of crimson, has been unfurled over fleet, and 
camp, and court, but the broad substructure of this great nation can- 
not be settled firmly and compactly in its bed in a hundred years. 

" ' I am a long time painting,' says an old Greek artist ; ' for I 
paint for a long time.' This is the laconic language of a universal 
truth. Whatever is destined long to survive, comes slowly to ma- 
turity. The primeval forests of cedar and oak, whose giant strength 



.1 A M ES W. PATTEKSON. 

lias resisted the forces of decay through half the life-time of man, 
slowly lifted their gnarled and massive forms through centuries of 
growth. The earth's deep plating was laid, stratum ahove stratum, 
through the lapse of the silent, unchronicled ages : for it was to be 
the theater of man's historic career. While the old cathedrals of 
Europe have risen slowly to their grand and solemn beauty, kings, 
their founders, have nioldered back to dust within their vaults, and 
the names of their architects have perished from memory. Succeed 
ing generations have added a tower, a stained window, or a jeweled 
altar, and lain down to rest beneath their shadow, and the work still 
lingers; but there they stand, firm as the bills, perpetuating in his- 
tories of stone the mural life and intellectual growth of the world, 
through many of its most eventful centuries. These are but types 
of national life. 

'■ From the foundation- of Rome, eight centuries, crowded with the 

reverses and triumphs of a heroic \ pie, bad passed into history, ere 

she became the mistress of the world. 

"The republic of Venice, too, which at first fled from Home's insa- 
tiable lust of power, and hid herself in the islands of the sea, drop- 
ping her bridal ring into the Adriatic, while the white-haired Doge 
pronounced the ' Desponaamus te, more, in signum veri perpetuigue 
Jmnui'i,' wedded the waves to her sweep of power through thirteen 
hundred years of freedom." 

One of his ablest speeches in the House was that which he deliv- 
ered in 1S64, on the Consular Bill, and which was recognized in 
Congress, at the State Department, and elsewhere, as an eminently 
able and exhaustive presentation upon that important subject. His 
speech on the Constitutional Amendment may also be mentioned as 
one of the best of the many able arguments made in the House at 
the time of the passage of that great measure. His services in the 
last two Presidential Campaigns have made his finished and popular 
eloquence familiar to every section of the country. On the stump 
he is perhaps surpassed by no orator in the country in the popularity 

and effectiveness of his eloquence. In all these efforts he deals 
9 120 



6 JAMES W. PATTERSON. 

almost exclusively with the great philosophical principles of Gov- 
ernment and of parties, appealing to the understanding, and not to 
the passions of his audiences. 

In the Senate, Mr. Patterson has already reached a high position. 
His broad, liberal culture, the deliberative character of his eloquence, 
and his habit of grappling with subjects in their foundation prin- 
ciples, all combine to give him great influence in the Senate. lie fills 
the seat vacated by Judge Daniel Clark, and it is a just and ample 
tribute to say of him that he adorns the place that for ten years was 
occupied by that able and eminent Senator. 

Mr. Patterson seems to have been exceedingly fortunate in Ids 
career, but his success has been the natural result of the fact that 
every public duty to which he has successively been called, has been 
executed wisely and well. From his first entrance into public life he 
has been a favorite with all classes in his State, and in Congress as 
well as at home at the present time he has the respect of all as an 
honest, able, and enlightened Statesman. 

130 



SCHUYLER COLFAX, 

8FEAKEK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE! 
VICE-PRESIDENT ELK C T . 




[iIE name of Colfax appears in Revolutionary history. 
General William Colfax, grandfather of the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, commanded the life-guards of 
General Washington during the Revolutionary war. Subse- 
quently to the war he was one of Washington's most intimate 
personal friends. The wife of General Colfax was a cousin 
of General Philip Schuyler. 

Schuyler Colfax, son of General Colfax, and father of the 
Statesman, resided in New York, where he held an office in 
one of the city tanks. Pie died soon after his marriage, and 
before the birth of his son. 

Hon. Schuyler Colfax was born in the city of New York 
March 23, 1823. He attended the common schools of the city 
until he was ten years old. At this early age his school train- 
ing terminated, and he launched into active life to acquire 
learning and make his way as best he could. The boy served 
three years as clerk in a store, and at the end of that time 
removed with his mother and stepfather, Mr. Matthews, to 
Indiana. They could have found no more attractive region in 
all the West than the place they chose for settlement — the 
beautiful region of prairies and groves bordering the River 
"St. Joseph of the Lakes." 

For four years following his removal to the West, the 
youth was employed as a clerk in a village store. At the age 
of seventeen, having been appointed deputy auditor, he re- 
moved to South Bend, the county town which ever since 



A SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

has been his residence. He frequently wrote for the local 
newspaper of the town, and attracted attention by the per- 
spicuity and correctness with which he expressed his views. 
During several sessions of the Legislature he was employed 
in reporting its proceedings for the Indianapolis Journal. 

In 18-15 Mr. Colfax became proprietor and editor of the 
"St. Joseph Valley Register," the local newspaper of South 
Bend. At the outset he had but two hundred and fifty sub- 
scribers, and at the end of the first year he found himself 
fourteen hundred dollars in debt. Being possessed of tact, 
energy, and ability, he pushed bravely forward in his labo- 
rious profession, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his 
paper a success. A few years later his newspaper office 
was burned, without insurance, and the editor had to begin 
his fortune again at the foundation. Mr. Colfax applied 
himself with renewed industry to his work, and in a few 
years made the St. Joseph Valley Register the most influ- 
ential paper in that portion of the State. 

Mr. Colfax was, in 1848, a delegate and secretary to 
the Whig National Convention which nominated General Tay- 
lor. Although his district was opposed to his political party, 
his personal popularity was so great that in 1819 he was 
elected a member of the Convention to revise the Consti- 
tution of Indiana. He was soon after offered a nomination 
to the State Senate, which he declined on account of the 
demands of his private business. 

Mr. Colfax received his first nomination as a candidate 
for Congress in 1851, and was beaten by a majority of only 
two hundred votes in a district strongly opposed to him in 
politics. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Whig National 
Convention which nominated General Scott. He declined 
to be a candidate for Congress in the subsequent election, 
which went against his party by a majority of one thousand 
votes. 

132 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 3 

The succeeding Congress signalized itself by passing the 
Nebraska bill, which wrought a great change in public opinion 
throughout the North. The Representative from Mr. Colfax's 
district voted for this odious act. He came home and took the 
stump as a candidate for re-election. Mr. Colfax was put for- 
ward as his opponent, and the two candidates traversed their 
district together, debating before the same audiences the great 
question which agitated the public mind. The unfortunate 
member strove in vain to justify his vote, and render the 
Nebraska act acceptable to the people. He who had gained 
the previous election by one thousand votes now lost it by 
a majority of two thousand. 

The Thirty-Fourth Congress, to which Mr. Colfax was then 
elected, convened December 3, 1855. At that time occurred 
the memorable contest for the Speakership which lasted two 
months, and resulted in the election of Mr. Banks. At one 
stage in the contest, an adroit attempt to foist Mr. Orr, of 
South Carolina, upon the House as Speaker, was defeated by 
an opportune proposition made by Mr. Colfax, by which the 
question was deferred and the result avoided. 

On the 21st of June, 185G, Mr. Colfax delivered a memorable 
speech on the "Laws" of Kansas, which fell with decided effect 
upon Congress and the country, as a plain and truthful showing 
of the great legislative enormity of the day. During the Presi- 
dential campaign of that year, half a million copies of this 
speech were distributed among the voters of the United States. 

While in Washington, Mr. Colfax was nominated for re- 
election, and, after a laborious canvass, carried his district, 
although the Presidential election went against his party. To 
each succeeding Congress Mr. Colfax has been regularly nomi- 
nated and re-elected. 

In the Thirty-Sixth Congress, Mr. Colfax was Chairman of 
the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads — a position in 
which he did good service for the country, by securing the 



4 SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

extension of mail facilities to the newly-settled regions of the far 
West. 

The nomination of Abraham Lincoln, in I860, was eminently sat- 
isfactory to Mr. Colfax, who entered with great spirit into the canvass, 
and did much to aid in carrying Indiana for the Republican party. 
During Mr. Lincoln's entire term, down to the day of his assassina- 
tion, he regarded Mr. Colfax as one of his wisest and most faithful 
friends, whom he often consulted on grave matters of public policy. 

At the opening of the Thirty-eighth Congress, December, 1863, 
Mr. Colfax was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
He lias since been twice re-elected to this important office, on each 
occasion by a larger majority than before. lie has displayed signal 
ability in performing the duties of an office of great difficulty and 
responsibility. His remarkable tact, unvarying good temper, ex- 
haustless patience, cool presence of mind, and familiarity with parlia- 
mentary law, all combine to render him, as a Speaker of the House, 
second to none who have ever occupied its Chair. 

In April, 1S65, Mr. Colfax went with a party of friends on a jour- 
ney across the continent, to San Francisco. The evening before his 
departure he called at the White House to take leave of President 
Lincoln. An hour after he grasped his hand with a cheerful and cor- 
dial good-bye, he was startled with the intelligence that the beloved 
President was assassinated. Before leaving for the Pacific, Mr. 
Colfax delivered a eulogy on the murdered President at Chicago, and 
afterward, by invitation, repeated it in Colorado, at Salt Lake City, 
and in California. 

On his way westward, Mr. Colfax spent a few days among the 
Mormons at Salt Lake City, studying their organization with the eye 
of a statesman. "I have had a theory fir years past," he said, in 
explaining the motives of his journey, "that it is the duty of men 
in public life, charged with a participation in the government of a 
great country like ours, to know as much a- possible of the interests, 
developments, and resources of the country whose destiny, compara- 
tively, has been committed to their hands." Brigham Young, in- 



SCHUYLEB COLFAX 

quiring of him what the Government intended to do about the ques- 
tion of polygamy, Mr. Colfax shrewdly replied that he hoped the 
prophet would have a new revelation on that subject, which would 
relieve all embarrassment. 

The reception of Mr. Colfax along his route and on the Pacific 
coastwas an ovation which revealed his great popularity. Onhis 
return, Mr. Colfax, bj argent solicitation, delivered in various cities 
and before vasl audience-, an eloquent and instructive lecture de- 
scribing adventures, scenes, and reflections, incident to his journey 
"Across the Continent." The proceeds of the delivery of this lec- 
ture were generally given to the widows and children of soldiers who 
had fallen in the war, and to other objects of benevolence. 

On the 20th of May, L868, the National Republican Convention 
assembled in Chicago. After unanimously nominating General 0". 
S. Grant for President, the ('(invention nominated Hon. Schuyler 
Colfax for Vice-President, receiving on the first formal ballot a ma- 
jority over all the distinguished gentlemen who had been named as 
candidates. This nomination was made unanimous amid unbounded 
enthusiasm. 

On the day following his nomination, Mr. Colfax received the con- 
gratulations of his friends in Washington, and in the course of a 
brief speech on that occasion, uttered the following noble sentiments : 
"Defying all prejudices, we are for uplifting the lowly, and protect- 
ing the oppressed. History record-, to the immortal honor of our or- 
ganization, that it >a\ed the nation and emancipated the race. We 
struck the fetter from the limb of the slave, and lifted millions 
into the glorious sunlight of liberty. We placed the emancipated 
slave on his feet as a man, and put into his right hand the ballot to 
protect his manhood and his rights. We staked our political exist- 
ence on the reconstruction of the revolted States, on the sure and 
eternal corner-stone of loyalty, and we shall triumph." 

No public party ever made more popular nominations. Both can- 
didates added special and peculiar elements of strength to the Re- 
publican ticket. 

135 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

After one of the must important and exciting political campaigns 
in the history of the country, Mr. Colfax was, on the 3d of No- 
vember, elected Vice-President of the United States, receiving, with 
the illustrious candidate for the Presidency, a large majority of both 
the electoral and popular votes. 

Mr. Colfax was first married at the age of twenty-one to an early 
playmate of his childhood. After being for a long time an invalid, 
she died several years ago, leaving him childless. Ilis mother and 
sister have since presided at his receptions, which, if not the most 
brilliant, have been the most popular of any given at the Capital. 
On the 18th of November, a fortnight after his election to the Vice- 
Presidency, Mr. Colfax was married to Miss Ella M. Wade, of An- 
dover, Ohio. She is a niece of Hon. Benjamin F. "Wade, and is a 
ladj whose virtues and accomplishments fit her to cheer the private 
life, and grace the public career of her distinguished husband. 

Mr. Colfax is of medium stature and compact frame, with a fair 
complexion, a mild, blue eye, and a large mouth, upon which a smile 
habitually plays. lie has a melodious voice, a rapid utterance, and 
smooth and graceful elocution. Consistent in politics, agreeable in 
manners, and pure in morals, he has all the elements of lasting pop- 
ularity. 

136 










7 ? &L^ 







JOHN A. BINGHAM. 



OHX A. BINGHAM is a native of Pennsylvania, and was 
born in 1H.">. After studying al an academy, he spent two 
years in a printing office, and then entered Franklin Col- 
lege, Ohio, but poor health prevented him from advancing to gradu- 
ation. He entered upon the study of law in 1838, and at the end 
of two years was admitted to the bar. From l s 4o to L854, he dili- 
gently and successfully practiced the profession in which he attained 
distinguished eminence. En the latter year he was elected a Repre- 
sentative in Congress, and has been a member of every subsequent 
Congress except the Thirty-eighth. 

In 1804, Mr. Bingham was appointed a Judge-Advocate in the 
Army, serving six months in that capacity. He was subsequently 
appointed, by President Lincoln, Solicitor in the Court of Claims, 
and held the office until March 4, 1SG5, when he became a member 
of the Thirty-ninth Congress. 

Mr. Bingham served as Special Judge-Advocate in the great trial 
of the assassination conspirators. Immense labor devolved upon 
him during this difficult and protracted trial. For six -weeks Mr. 
Bingham's arduous duties allowed him but brief intervals for rest. 
He occupied nine hours in the delivery of the closing argument, in 
which he ably elucidated the testimony, and conclusively proved the 
guilt of the conspirators. 

Mr. Bingham's success in this great trial attracted general attention, 
and awakened a wide-spread curiosity to know his history. Soon 
after the close of the trial, a correspondent of the Philadelphia Press 
having expressed the deep interest he had felt in arriving at a well- 



2 JOHN A. BINGHAM. 

founded conclusion as to " the guilt of the prisoners and the constitu- 
tionality of the court," proceeded : 

" Grant me space in your columns to give expression to my most 
unqualified admiration of the great arguments, on these two main 
points, presented to the Court by the Special Jndge-Advocate-Gen- 
eral, John A. Bingham. In the entire range of my reading, I have 
known of no productions that have so literally led me captive. 

"For careful analysis, logical argumentation, profound and most 
extensive research ; for overwhelming unravelment of complications 
that would have involved an ordinary mind only with inextricable 
bewilderment, and for a literal rending to tatters of all the meta- 
physical subtleties of the array of legal talent engaged on the other 
side, I know of no two productions in the English language superior 
to these. They are literally, as the spear of Ithuriel, dissolving 
the hardest substances at their touch; as the thread of Dcedalus, 
leading out of labyrinths of error, no matter how thick and mazy. 
Not Locke or Bacon were more profound; not .Daniel Webster 
was clearer and more penetrating ; not Chillingworth was more 
logical. 

"I feel sure that the author of these two unrivaled papers must 
possess a legal mind unrivaled in America, and must be, too, one of 
our rising statesmen. But who is John A. Bingham, who, by his 
industry and learning displayed on this wonderful trial, has placed 
the country under such a heavy debt of obligation ? He may be 
well known to others moving in a public sphere, like yourself, but to 
me, so absorbed in a different line of duty, he has appeared so sud- 
denly, and yet with such vividness, that I long to know some, at 
least, of his antecedents. 1 ' 

Upon which the Editor remarked : " The question of our esteemed 
correspondent is natural to one Avho has not, probably, watched the 
individual actors on the great stage of public affairs with the interest 
of the historical and political student. We are not surprised that 
the arguments of Mr. Bingham before the Military Commission 
should have filled him with delight. It was worthy of the great 
138 



JOH N A. Jil NG !1 \ •. 

subjecl confided to thai accomplished statesman l>\ the Government, 
and nt' his own tame. 

" When the assassins of Mr. Lincoln were senl for trial before the 
Military Court by Presidenl Johnson, the Government wisely lefl 
the whole management to Judge II"lt and his eloquent associate, Mr. 
Bingham ; and to the latter was committed the stupendous labor of 
sifting the mass of evidence, of replying to the corps of lawyers t' >r 
the defense, of setting forth the guill of the accused, and of vindica- 
ting the policy and the duty of the Executive in an exigency so novel 
and so full of tragic solemnity . The crime was so enormous, and the 
trial of those whi nmitted tl so important in all its issues, imme- 
diate, contingent, and remote, as to awaken an excitement that 
embraced all nations. The murder itself was almost forgotten bj 
those who wished to screen the murderers, and the most v 
theories were broached and sown broadcast by men who, under cloak 
of reverence for what they called the Law, toiled with herculean energy 
to weaken the arm of the Government, extended, in time of war. to 
save the servants of the people from being slaughtered by assassins 
in public places, and tracked even to their own firesides by the agenl - 
and fiends of Slavery. These poisons of plausibihty, blunting the 
sharpest horrors of anj age, and sanctifying the most hellish offenses, 
required an antidote as swift to cure. Mr. Bingham's two great 
arguments, alluded to by our correspondent, have supplied the 
remedy. They are monuments of reflection, research, and argu- 
mentation : and they are presented in the language of a scholar, and 
with the fervor of an orator. In the great volume of proof and 
counter-proof, rhetoric and controversy, that for ever preserves the 
record of this great trial, the efforts of Mr. Bingham will ever re- 
main to be first studied with an eager and admiring interest. That 
they came after all that has and can be said against the Govern- 
ment, is rather an inducement to their mure satisfactory and critical 
consideration. For from that study the American student and citi- 
zen must, more than ever, realize how irresistible is Truth when in 
conflict with Falsehood, and how poor and puerile are all the pro- 

139 



4 JOHN A. BINGHAM. 

fessional tricks of the lawyer when opposed to the moral power of 
the patriot." 

In Congress, Mr. Bingham has had a distinguished career, marked 
by important services to the country. In the Thirty-seventh Congress 
he was earnest and successful in advocating many important measures 
to promote the vigorous prosecution of the war. which had just begun. 
Returning to Congress in 1865, after an absence of two years, he at 
once took a prominent position. Upon the formation of the Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction, December 1-4, 1805, he was appointed 
one of the nine members on the part of the House. lie was active in 
advocating the great measures of Reconstruction which were pr< ipi tsed 
and passed in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. The House 
of Representatives having resolved that Andrew Johnson should lie 
impeached for " high crimes and misdemeanors," Mr. Bingham was 
appointed on the Committee to which was intrusted the important, 
duty of drawing up the Articles of Impeachment. This work having 
been done to the satisfaction of the House, Mr. Bingham was elected 
Chairman of the Managers to conduct the Impeachment of the Presi- 
dent before the Senate. On him devolved the duty of making the 
closing argument. His speech on this occasion ranks among the 
greatest forensic efforts of any age. He began the delivery of his 
argument on Monday, May 4th, and occupied the attention of the 
Senate and a vast auditory on the floor and in the galleries during 
three successive days. At the close of his argument, the immense 
audience in the galleries, wrought up to the highest pitch, of 
enthusiasm, gave vent to such an unanimous and continued outburst of 
applause as had never before been beard in the Capitol. Ladies and 
gentlemen, who could not have been induced deliberately to trespass 
on the decorum of the Senate, by whose courtesy they were admitted 
to the galleries, overcome by their feelings, joined in the utterance 
of applause, knowing that for so doing the Sergeant-at-Arms would 
be required to expel them from the galleries. The history of the 
country records no similar tribute to the oratorial efforts of the ablest 
advocates or statesmen. From so long and so well-sustained an 
140 



.Hi UN A. BINQHA5! 

argument, it is impossible to select particular passages which would 
give an adequate idea of the whole. The following historical argumenl 
for the supremacy of the Law, will always be read with interest, 
whether as an extract, or in its original setting: 

"Is it not in vain, I a>k you, Senators, that the people have thus 
vindicated by battle the supremacy of their own Constitution and 
laws, if, after all, their President is permitted to suspend their law- 
ami dispense with the execution thereof at pleasure, and defy the 
power of the people to bring him to trial and judgment before the 
only tribunal authorized by the Constitution to try him? That is 
the issue which is presented before the Senate for decision by these 
articles of impeachment. By such acts of usurpation on the part of 
the ruler of a people, 1 need not say to the Senate, the peace of na- 
tions is broken, as it is only by obedience to law that the peace of 
nations is maintained, and their existence perpetuated. Law is the 
voice of God and the harmony of the world 

'It doth preserve the stars from wrong, 
Through it the eternal heavens arc fresh and strong.' 

"All history is but philosophy teaching by example. God is in his- 
tory, and through it teaches to men and nations the profoundest les 
sons which they learn. It does not surprise me. Senators, that the 

learned counsel for the accused asked the Senate, in the < sideration 

of this question, to close that volume of instruction, not to lock into 
the past, not to listen to its voices. Senator-, from that day when the 
inscription was written upon the graves of the heroes of Ther- 
mopylae, ' Stranger, go tell the Lacedemonians that we lie here in 
obedience to their laws,' to this hour, no profounder lesson has come 
down to us than this : that through obedience to law comes the 
strength of nations and the safety of men. 

"No more fatal provision ever found its way into the constitutions 
of States than that contended for in this defense which recognizes 
the right of a single despot or of the many to discriminate in the ad- 
ministration of justice between the ruler and the citizen, between the 
strong and the weak. It was by this unjust discrimination that Ar- 



6 JOHN A. BINGHAM. 

astides was banislied because lie was just. It was by this unjust dis- 
crimination that Socrates, the wonder of the Pagan world, was 
doomed to drink the hemlock because of his transcendent virtues. 
It was in honorable protest against this unjust discrimination thai 
the great Roman Senator, father of his country, declared that the 
force of law consists in its being made for the whole community. 

" Senators, it is the pride and boast of that great people from wh< m 
we are descended, as it is the pride ami boast of every American, that 
the law is the supreme power of the State, and is for the protection of 
each by the combined power (.fall. By the Constitution of England 
the hereditary monarch is no mure above the law than the humblest 
subject ; and by the Constitution of the United States the President is 
no more above the law than the poorest and most friendless beggar in 
your streets. The usurpations of Charles I. inflicted untold injuries 
upon the people of England, and finally cost the usurper his life. The 
subsecpient usurpations of James II. — and I only refer to it because 
there is between his official conduct and that of this accused President 
the most remarkable parallel that I have ever read in history— filled 
the brain and heart of England with the conviction that new securities 
must be taken to restrain the prerogatives asserted by the Crown, if 
they would maintain their ancient constitution and perpetuate their 
liberties. It is well said by Ilallam that the usurpations of James 
swept away the solemn ordinances of the legislature. Out of those 
usurpations came the great revolution of 1688, which resulted in the 
dethronement and banishment of James, in the elevation of William 
and Mary, in the immortal Declaration of Rights. 

" I ask the Senate to notice that these charges against James are 
substantially the charges presented against this accused President and 
ci mfessed here of record, that he has suspended the laws, and dispensed 
with the execution of the laws, and in order to do this has usurped au- 
th< irity as the Executive of the nation, declaring himself entitled under 
the < onstitutioii to suspend the laws and dispense with their execution. 
lie has further, like James, issued a commission contrary to law. He 
has further, like James, attempted to control the appropriated moncv 



JOHN A. BINGHAM 7 

of the people contrary to law. And lie has further, like James, although 
it is not alleged against him in the articles of impeachment, it is con- 
fessed in his answer, attempted to cause the question of his responsi 
bility to the people to he tried, not in the King's Bench, but in the 
Supreme Court, when that question is alone cognizable in the Senate 
of the United States. Surely, Senators, if these usurpations, it' these 
endeavors on the part of .lames thus to subvert the liberties of the 
people of England, cost him his crown and kingdom, the like offenses 
committed bj Andrew Johnson ought to cost him his office, and sub- 
ject him to thai perpetual disability pronounced by the people through 
the ( constitution upon him for his high crime- and misdemeanors. 

* 1 a-k you, Senators, how long men would deliberate upon 
the question whether a private citizen, arraigned at the bar of one of 
your tribunals of justice for a criminal violation of the law. should he 
permitted to interpose a plea in justification of hi- criminal act that 
his only purpose was to interpret the Constitution and laws tor himself, 
that he violated the law in the exercise of his prerogative to test its 
validity hereafter at such day as might suit his own convenience in 
the courts of justice. Surely, it is as competent for the private citizen 
to interpose such justification in answer to crime in one of your 
tribunals of justice, a- it i> for the President of the United States to 
interpose it, and for the simple reason that the Constitution is no 
respecter of persons, and vests neither in the President nor in the 
private citizen judicial power. * " :: " '"" 

"Can it he, that by your decree yon are at last to make this 
discrimination between the ruler of the people and the private citizen, 
and allow him to interpose his assumed right to interpret judicially 
your Constitution and laws >. Are yon solemnly to proclaim by your 
decree : 

" Plate sill with gold, 
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks ; 

Arm it iu rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it? " 

" I put away the possibility that the Senate of the United States, 
equal in dignity to any tribunal in the world, is capable of recording 
any such decision even upon the petition and prayer of this accused 



8 JOHN A. BINGHAM. 

and guilty President. Can it be that by reason of his great office the 
President is to be protected in his high crimes and misdemeanors, 
violative alike of his oath, of the Constitution, and of the express 
letter of your written law enacted by the legislative department of 
the Government '( * * * 

"I ask you, Senators, to consider that I speak before you this day 
in behalf of the violated law of a free people who commission me. I 
ask you to remember that I speak this day under the obligations of 
my oath. I ask you to consider that I am not insensible to the 
significance of the words of which mention was made by the learned 
counsel from New York: justice, duty, law, oath. I ask you to 
remember that the great principles of constitutional liberty for which 
I this day speak, have been tanght to men and nations by all the trials 
and triumphs, by all the agonies and martyrdoms of the past; that 
they are the wisdom of the centuries uttered by the elect of the human 
race who were made perfect through suffering. 

''I ask you to consider that we stand this day pleading for the 
violated majesty of the law, 1 y the graves of a half million of martyred 
hero-patriots who sacrificed themselves for their country, the Consti- 
tution, and the laws, and who by their sublime example have taught 
us that all must obey the law ; that none are above the law ; that no 
man lives for himself alone, but each for all ; that some must die 
that the state may live ; that the citizen is at best but for to-day, 
while the Commonwealth is for all time ; and that position, however 
high— patronage, however powerful— cannot be permitted to shelter 
crime to the peril of the Republic." 
144 



TIIADDE U S ST E V E \ S. 




^J 1 1 E picturesque mountainous region known as Caledonia 
County, in the State of Vermont, was the birth-place of 
Thaddeus Stevens. His father was Joshua Stevens, and 
his mother's maiden name was Sarah Morrill. " My father," said 
Thaddeus Stevens, near the close of his life, "was not a well-to-do 
man, and the support and education of the family depended on my 
mother. She worked night and day to educate me. I was feeble and 
lame in my youth; and as I couldn't work on the farm, she concluded 
to give me an education. I tried to repay her afterward, but the 
debt of a child to his mother is one of the debts we can never pay. 
The greatest gratification of my life resulted from my ability to 
give my mother a farm of two hundred and fifty acres and a dairy 
of fourteen cows, and an occasional bright gold piece, which she 
loved to deposit in the contribution box of the Baptist church which 
she attended. This always gave her much pleasure and me much satis- 
faction. My mother was a very extraordinary woman, and I have met 
very few women like her. Poor woman ! the very thing I did to grat- 
ify her most, hastened her death. She was very proud of her dairy 
and fond of her cows, and one night, going out to look after them, she 
fell and injured herself so that she died soon after." 

Thaddeus Stevens ever cherished not only an affectionate memory 
of his mother, but a warm attachment to the place of his nativity. 
Late in fife, he called his immense iron works in Franklin County, 
Pennsylvania, Caledonia, after the name of his native county. 

In seeking an education, he first went as a student to the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, at Burlington. Upon the occupation of the town by 



2 THADDEUS STEVENS 

the British in the war of 1812, the institution was suspended, and 
young Stevens went to Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 
1814. lie immediately removed to Pennsylvania, and first made his 
residence in the borough of York. Here he taught school for a live- 
lihood, and read law carefully and steadily through the intervals of 
the day and night. The bar of York County then numbered among 
its members some lawyers of uncommon ability and distinction. 
They very strangely formed a plan to thwart the designs of the 
young school-teacher by the passage of a resolution providing that 
no person should he recognized as a lawyer among them who followed 
any other vocation while preparing himself for admission to the bar. 
The young student paid no attention to this resolution, but pursued 
the even tenor of his way until he mastered his studies, and then 
quietly repaired to one of the adjoining counties of Maryland, where 
he passed a creditable examination. He then returned to York, pre- 
sented his credentials, and was regularly, though reluctantly, ad- 
mitted. 

In 1816, Mr. Stevens removed to the adjoining County of Adams, 
and settled in the now historical town of Gettysburg. Here he soon 
rose to the head of a profession which he ardently loved, and prac- 
ticed with signal success through a long and laborious career. 

Soon obtaining a reputation as one of the most acute lawyers and 
able reasoners in the State, he was employed in many of the most im- 
portant cases tried in the courts of the commonwealth. He was 
especially pleased to be retained in causes where some injustice or op- 
pression was to be opposed, or where the weak were to be protected 
against the machinations of the strong. In such cases he embarked 
with characteristic zeal, and no epithet was too forcible or too wither- 
ing for him to employ in denouncing the evil-doer, and no metaphor 
was too bold for him to use in depicting the just punishment of 
wrong-doing. While still a very young man, he heard of a free 
woman who was held in the jail at Frederick, Maryland, as a slave. 
He instantly volunteered to become her counsel, and saved her 
from the decree that wanted only the color of an excuse to condemn 

146 



THADDEUS STEVENS. 3 

fier to servitude. Some years afterward, while on the way from 
Gettysburg to Baltimore, he was appealed to by the same woman to 
save her husband from being sold South by his owner, who was his own 

father. Mr. Stevens complied with the wishes of the | r woman 

by paying the full value of the -lave to the unnatural father. Asa 
lawyer, Mr. Stevens was the enemy of the oppressor and the champion 
of the poor and the down-trodden. Injusticeand wrong, when perpe- 
trated by the powerful and great, aroused his indignation and called 
forth terrible outbursts of denunciation. The same spirit was mani- 
fested in later years, when he denounced Chief-Justice Tanej bj 
saying that the Dred Scott decision had "damned its author to ever 
lasting infamy, and, he feared, to everlasting flame." 

Fierce as was the denunciation of Mr. Stevens against those whom 
lie regarded as wrong-doers, lie never had aught but words of kind- 
ness and encouragement for the poor and unoffending. In the prae- 
tiee of his profession at Gettysburg, Mr. Stevens was brought into 
the closest and most confidential relations with the people. They 
sought and followed his friendly advice in delicate and importanl 
matters, which in noway pertained to the laws or the courts. He 
was not only the legal adviser, but the personal friend of the entire 
community. The aged inhabitant- of Adams County still remember 
his unaffected benevolence, and unobtrusive charities. No command- 
ing benevolence, no useful public enterprise, nothing calculated to 
improve his fellow-men in the region where he lived, was projected 
or completed without his efficient and generous contribution. Penn- 
sylvania College, in Gettysburg, has a noble hall bearing his name, 
which stands as a monument of his services in behalf of education. 

Mr. Stevens' public political career began in 1833, when he was 
elected a Representative in the State Legislature. Possessed of the 
most practical common sense, and the most formidable power of de- 
bate, he soon became a leader. lie was always foremost in every 
movement that contemplated the improvement of the people. He 
began his legislative career by proposing and advocating a law to 
establish a free-school system in Pennsylvania. So great was the 

147 



4 THADDEUS STEVENS. 

ignorance at that time prevalent in Pennsylvania, that one-fourth of 
the adult population of the State were unable to write their names. 
The consequence was, that when Mr. Stevens proposed a system for 
taxing the people for the education of their children, a storm of 
obloquy and opposition arose against him. His own constituents of 
the county of Adams refused to second his educational movements. 
Again and again they instructed him to change his course. lie an- 
swered with renewed efforts in the cause, and a more defiant dis- 
obedience of their mandates, until at last, overcome by his earnest 
elocpience and unfailing perseverance, they rallied to his support and 
enthusiastically re-elected him. 

The school law was just going into operation with the sanction of 
all benevolent men, when a strength of opposition was combined 
against it which promised to effect its immediate abrogation. The 
miserly, and ignorant wealthy, used their money and their influence 
to bring it into disrepute, and procured the election by an over- 
whelming majority of a Legislature pledged to repeal the law. The 
members of the Legislature were on the eve of obeying instructions 
to expunge the school law from the statute book, when Thaddeus 
Stevens rose in his seat and pronounced a most powerful speech in 
opposition to the movement for repeal. The effect of that " sur- 
passing effort " is thus described by one who witnessed the scene : 

" All the barriers of prejudice broke down before it. It reached 
men's hearts like the voice of inspiration. Those M-ho were almost 
ready to take the life of Thaddeus Stevens a few weeks before, were 
instantly converted into his admirers and friends. During its delivery 
in the hall of the House at Harrisburg, the scene was one of dramatic 
interest and intensity. Thaddeus Stevens was then forty-three years 
of age, and in the prime of life ; and his classic countenance, noble 
voice, and cultivated style, added to the fact that lie was speaking the 
holiest truths and for the noblest of all human causes, created such a 
feeling among his fellow-members that, for once at least, our State 
legislators rose above all selfish feelings, and responded to the instincts 
of a higher nature. The motion to repeal the law failed, and a 
1-18 



THADDEUS STEVENS ;, 

number of votes pledged to sustain it were changed upon the spot, 
and what seemed to lie an inevitable defeat was transformed into 
a crowning victory for the friends of common schools." 

Immediately after the conclusion of this great effort, Mr. Stevens re- 
ceived a congratulatory message from Governor Wolf, his determined 
political opponent, but a firm friend of popular education. When 
Mr. Stevens, soon after, entered the executive chamber, Governor 
Wolf threw his arms about his neck, and with tearful eve and broken 
voice, thanked him for the great service he had rendered to humanity. 
The millions who now inhabit Pennsylvania, or \\ ho having been born 
and educated there have gone forth to people other States, have reason 
to honor the intrepid statesman, who, anticipating the future. 
grappled with the prejudices of the time, and achieved a victory for 
the benefit of all coming generations. 

This same zeal in behalf of education for the humblest and poor- 
est was cherished by Mr. Stevens to his latest years. When the 
ladies of Lancaster called upon him for a subscription to their 
orphans' school, he declined the request on the ground that they 
refused admission to colored children. "I never will." said he, 
"Heaven helping me, encourage a system which denies education to 
any one of God Almighty's household." 

The year 1S35 was one of intense political excitement in Penn- 
sylvania. Anti-Masonry had just blazedupwith a lurid glare, which 
caused men to take alarm without knowing how or whence it came. 
Ever on the alert against whatever seemed dangerous to freedom, Mr. 
Stevens was out-spoken in his denunciation of secret societies. ( Jeoi'ge 
Wolf, a Mason, was then Governor, and a candidate for re-election ; 
hut Joseph Eitner, the Anti-Mason candidate, was elected. Party 
rancor was very hitter, and personal animosities sometimes broke out 
in violence. Mr. Stevens was challenged to fight a duel by Mr. 
McElwee, a member of the House, but instead of going to the field, 
he retorted in a bitter speech, full of caustic wit and withering sar- 
casm. That was a memorable period in the political history of Penn- 
sylvania, when, in the partisan language of the day, " JoeRitner was 
149 



G THADDEUS STEVENS 

Governor, and Thad. Stevens his oracle, and the keeper of his con- 
science." Canals and railroads were then originated, which tended to 
develop the material resources, as free-schools tended to promote the 
intellectual resources of Pennsylvania. 

In 1836, Mr. Stevens was elected a member of the Convention to 
amend the Constitution of Pennsylvania, an instrument framed as 
early as 1776. The Convention was composed of many of the ablest 
lawyers and most distinguished orators in the State. Of the one 
hundred and thirty-three members of the Convention, none took a 
more active part than Mr. Stevens. lie labored with great energy 
and ability to have the word " white," as applied to citizens, stricken 
from the Constitution. The majority 7 were unable or unwilling to 
surmount their prejudices and reject the obnoxious word. So great 
was the disgust of Mr. Stevens with the work of the Convention, that 
he refused to attach his name to the amended Constitution. 

In 1838, the political animosities of Pennsylvania culminated in 
the " Buckshot War," one of the most remarkable episodes in the his- 
tory of this country. The trouble originated in alleged election 
frauds in Philadelphia County at the general election of 1838. The 
friends of Governor Ritner, who had been a candidate for re-election, 
maintained that he had been defeated by perjury and fraud. An 
address was issued soon after the election by the Chairman of the 
State Committee, advising the friends of Governor Ritner, until an 
investigation had been made, to regard the result as favorable to 
them. It seemed that Mr. Porter, the governor elect, would not be 
inaugurated, and that certain Democrats elected to the Legislature 
from Philadelphia would not be admitted to seats. On the day ap- 
pointed for the assembling of the Legislature, three hundred men 
from Philadelpha appeared in Ilarrisburg with the avowed purpose 
of overawing the Senate and House, and compelling them to receive 
certain election returns which the Whigs regarded as fraudulent. At 
a certain point in the proceedings of the Senate, the mob rushed down 
from the galleries and took possession of the floor. The Speaker of 
the Senate, together with Mr. Stevens and some others, escaped 

150 



THADDEUS STEVENS 7 

tlirough a window from the violence of the mob. "While the mob 
held possession of the Senate-chamber and the town. theHonse was 
the scene of equal confusion; the members splitting into several 
bodies under speakers of their own election, each claiming to be the 
legitimate Assembly. The Governor was perplexed and alarmed. 
lie issued a proclamation calling out the militia of the State, and 
applied to the General Government for troops to suppress the out- 
break which seemed imminent. The greater part of the militia 
forces of the State at once responded to the call, but the troops asked 
from the Genera] Government were refused. At length an under- 
standing was arrived at by which the Whigs yielded, a Democratic 
organization of the Legislature was effected, and .Mr. Porter was 
inaugurated a- < i-overnor. 

The Democrats having gained the upper hand, singled out Mr. 
Stevens as the victim of their vengeance. A committee was ap- 
pointed " to inquire whether Thaddeus Stevens, a member elect from 
the comity of Adams, has not forfeited his right to a seat in the 
House. The offense charged was contempt of the House in calling 
it an illegal body — the offspring of a mob. Mr. Stevens declined to 
attend the meetings of the Committee, and wrote a declaration set- 
ting forth the illegality of the inquiry. Mr. Stevens was ejected fi 1 

the Legislature, although thirty-eight Democratic members protested 
against the action of the majority. Sent hack to his constituents, he 
issued a stirring address to the people of Adams County, and he was 
triumphantly re-elected. An escort to the State Capitol was offered 
him by his enthusiastic constituents, hut he declined the honor in a 
letter, in which occur the following remarkable, and almost prophetic, 
words: " Victories, even over rebels in civil wars, should he treated 
with solemn thanksgiving, rather than with songs of mirth.''' An- 
other term of service, to which Mr. Stevens was elected in 1841, 
closed his career in the State Legislature. 

In 1S42, at fifty years of age, Mr. Stevens found his private busi- 
ness in a state of confusion, as a consequence of his unremitting atten- 
tion to public and political affairs. Ik' found himself insolvent, with 



8 THADDEUS STEVENS 

debts of over two hundred thousand dollars, principally through mis- 
management by a partner in the Caledonia Iron Works. Resolved 
to liquidate this immense debt, he looked about for some more remu- 
nerative field for professional practice than the Gettysburg bar offered, 
and he removed to Lancaster. There he devoted himself with great 
energy and success to his profession, and in a few years fully retrieved 
his fortune. 

In 1S48, Mr. Stevens was elected to represent the Lancaster Dis- 
trict in the Thirty-first Congress, and was re-elected to the succeeding 
Congress. He carried to the National Capitol a large legislative 
experience acquired in another field, and immediately took a prominent 
position in Congress. The subjects, however, which Avere acted upon 
by the Congress of that day were not such as called into conspicuous 
view the peculiar legislative abilities of Mr. Stevens. 

After an interval of six years, when elected to the Thirty-sixth 
Congress, he entered upon that distinguished public career which has 
given his name a prominent place in American History. 

He held the important position of Chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means during three successive Congressional terms. In 
the Thirty-ninth Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations. In this and in the Fortieth Congress he was Chair- 
man of the Committee on Reconstruction. These positions gave him 
a very prominent place in Congress and before the country. 

The first measure of Mr. Stevens, which attracted great attention, 
was introduced by him on the Sth of December, 1S62, to indemnity 
the President and other persons for suspending the privilege of the 
habeas corpus. This act assisted much to promote the successful 
issue of the war. It placed a power in the hands of the great and 
good Executive of the nation, which was absolutely essential to the 
suppression of the rebellion. 

It was ever an object dear to the heart of Mr. Stevens to raise up 
ami disenthrall the down-trodden colored population of the South. 
Foreseeing that this would be accomplished as a result of the war. he 
became the originator and earnest advocate of many measures de- 

152 



THADDEUS STEVENS. 9 

signed to effect this end. As early as the first disaster of Bull Run 
lie publicly favored the employment of negroes as soldiers, to aid in 
putting down the rebellion of their masters. In the summer of 1862, 
a bill was passed, granting to negroes the privilege of constructing 
fortifications and performing camp services. This fell far below the 
mission of the colored race in the war. as conceived in the mind of 
Mr. Stevens. On the 27th of January, L863, he offered a bill in the 
House for the enlistment of the negro a- a -oldicr. The hill passed 
the House, hut was reported upon adversely by the Military (om 
mittee of the Senate. That body could only bring themselves to the 
point of agreeing to the enlistment of the negro as a cook! That 
which Mr. Stevens was unable to bring about by Congressional 
enactment, he had the pleasure, ere long, of seeing effected by force 
of the necessities of war. 

With "hope deferred,*' Mr. Stevens impatiently awaited that 
oreat act of justice and necessity, the President's Proclamation of 
Emancipation. After this great Executive act was done. Mr. Stevens 
was not content \mtil its perpetuity was secured by constitutional 
guarantees. Accordingly, on the 24th of March following, he offered 
in the House a joint resolution proposing an article in the Constitu- 
tion abolishing slavery. A joint resolution of similar import had 
been previously offered in the Senate by Mr. Trumbull, and agreed to 
by that body, but it was rejected in the House. After consideration, 
the resolution of Mr. Stevens was laid over, and the joint resolution 
of Mr. Trumbull was again taken up on a motion to reconsider, and 
was finally adopted, January 31, 1865. 

The biography of Mr. Stevens, written in detail, would be a com- 
plete history of the legislation of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Con- 
gresses, down to the day of his death. At his instance, the Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction was created, and he occupied the posi- 
tion of Chairman on the part of the House. He strenuously advo- 
cated the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the Civil Bights Bill. He 
had the honor of proposing in the House the great measure, now a part 
of the Constitution, known as the Fourteenth Amendment. As Chair- 
153 



1(1 .THADDEUS STEVENS. 

man of the Committee on Reconstruction, Mr. Stevens reported to 
the House the Military Reconstruction Bill, under which all the 
States save Tennessee, which had previously been, reconstructed, 
wore destined to be restored to their former relation to the Federal 
Union. 

Mr. Stevens had no patience nor forbearance with Andrew John- 
son, whom he contemptuously described as " the man at the other 
end of the Avenue." lie regarded him as a had man, guilty of 
'• high crimes and misdemeanors." The annals of Congressional ora- 
tory contain nothing more impressive than Mr. Stevens' scathing and 
withering denunciations of the character and usurpation of the Presi- 
dent. Cato was not more earnest and sincere in the utterance of his 
formula for the safety of Rome — Carthago delenda est — than was 
Mr. Stevens in his demands that the President should be removed 
from office. Though in an extreme condition of physical feebleness, 
Mr. Stevens consented to act as one of the Managers of the Impeach- 
ment on the part of the House. He proposed the Eleventh Article, 
which was regarded as the strongest against the President, and was 
selected as that upon which the first vote was taken. He pronounced 
one of the ablest arguments delivered before the " High Court of Im- 
peachment,''' though unable to deliver more than the opening para- 
graphs in person. 

So feeble was he at this time, and for some months before, that he 
had to be borne to and from his seat in the House, seated in a chair 
which was carried by two stalwart young men. As they were lifting 
him in his chair one day, he said : " How shall I get to the House, 
when you two die % " This playful expression not only illustrates his 
humor, but his resolute determination to do duty to the last. 

For two years Mr. Stevens' health was gradually failing. Month 
after month he grew weaker and more shadow-like. It seemed, at 
last, that he was kept alive by force of an indomitable will and an 
intense desire to see the country safely through the dangers of recon- 
struction. 

On the adjournment of Congress, July 28, Mr. Stevens was too fee- 
154 



THADDEUS STEVENS. n 

ble to endure the journey to his h e at Lancaster. He rapidly grew 

worse, until In- expired at midnight on the 11th of August. The an- 
nouncement of his death created profound sensation in all parts of 
tlir country. IIi> remains, as they lav in state in the rotunda of the 
Capitol, were looked upon by thousands, but by none with so much 
affectionate interest a- l>\ multitudes of the-colored race,- for- whose 

freed enfranchisement, and protection he had devoted so much 

thought ami labor. Bis body was finally conveyed to its List resting 
place in Lancaster, amid demonstrations of sincere respect such as are 
manifested only at the obsequies of public benefactors. 

At his death Mr. Stevens held hut a small proportion of the 
property which he had accumulated during a long ami Laborious life. 
Three times he lost all he had. Hi- latest failure was occasioned by 
the destruction of his Caledonia Iron Works by the rebels in their 
raid mi Chambersburg. His friends immediately raised sIoo.hihi, 
which they tendered him,' but he would accept the gift only on con- 
dition that it should be turned over to the poor of Lancaster County. 
Another incident illustrates his kindness of heart towards the poor 
ami the distressed : A few week- before his death, while on his way to 
the Capitol, he met a poor woman in great trouble. She told him 
that she had just lost seventy-five cents, her little market money, and 
that she had nothing to buy food for her children. " What a lucky 
woman you are." said Mr. Stevens : " 1 ha\ e just found what you have 
lost !" putting his hand into his pocket and giving her a five-dollar 
bill. 

Mr. Stevens, as lie appeared in the House near the end of his life, 
is thus described by one looking down from the galleries: 

••And now the members crowd around a central desk. The con 
fusion of tongues, which amazes a spectator in the galleries, is hushed 
for a brief space. The crowds in the balconies bend eager ears. A 
gaunt, weird, tall old man has risen in his seat — the man who is often 
called the Leader of the House. Deep eye-, hidden under a cliff of 
brow, the strong nose of a pioneer of thought, shut, thin lips, a fac - 
pale with the frost of the grave, long, bony, emphatic limb- — these 

1.35 



12 THADDEUS STEVENS. 

cover the uneasy ghost which men call Thaddeus Stevens. The great 
days of his power are past. Perseus has slain his dragon, and now 
he would unchain the fair Andromeda for whom he fought, binding 
her brows with the stars. The new version is sadder than the old, 
for he will not live to see the glory for which he has wrought. He 
is wonderful even in his decline. Day after day he comes, compelling 
his poor body, by the might of the strong soul that is in him, to serve 
him yet longer. He looks so weary of this confusion which we call 
life, and yet so resolute to command it still. Erratic, domineering, 
hard, subtle, Stevens is yet so heroic, he wears such a crown of noble 
years upon him, that one's enthusiasm, and one's reverence, cling to 
hi in." 

Thaddeus Stevens was the ablest political and parliamentary leader 
of his time. Tall in statm-e, deliberate in utterance and in gesticula- 
tion, with a massive head, and features of a classic mould, he seemed 
an orator of the old Roman type. As a speaker in his later years, he 
was never declamatory. " Those stilettoes of pitiless wit which made 
his caustic tongue so dreaded were ever uttered from the softest tones 
of his voice." He was seldom elocpient, yet eveiy one gave him 
breathless attention. He possessed a personal influence and a mag- 
netic power never separated from strong intellect and unbending de- 
termination, by which he was fitted to be a leader of men. He was 
unaffected in his manners, and impressive in conversation. He lived 
both in Lancaster and "Washington in a simplicity of style befitting 
the leading Republican of his day. 
156 



WILLIAM B. STOKES. 




'ILLIAM 13. STOKES was born in Chatham County, 
North Carolina, on the 9th day of September, 1*14. In 

Jjgjlp the month of March, 1818, his father started with his family 
to the new State of Tennessee. On his way thither lie was killed by 
the passage of a wagon over his person. The care of a large family 
now devolved upon the mother, who, with limited means, was unable 
to educate, beyond the rudiments of an English education, the elder 
members of the family. Young William was an active, spirited boy. 
He married early, and betook himself to the pursuit of agriculture, 
lie was an active, enterprising farmer, and possessed the good-will of 
his neighbors from his warm-hearted generosity, his candor and in- 
tegrity of character. 

He has held a number of posts of honor and trust, by the choice of 
his fellow-citizens. 

In 1849 he was first elected to the lower branch of the Tennessee 
Legislature; in 1S51 he was re-elected. In 1855 he was chosen to 
represent his District in the State Senate. 

Mr. Stokes w r as always a Whig in politics, and devoted to the great 
leader of that party, Mr. Clay. In 1S3C lie voted for Hon. Hugh 
L. White for President ; in 1840, for Gen. Harrison ; 1844, for Henry 
Clay ; 1S4S, for Gen. Taylor ; 1852, for Gen. Scott ; 1856, for Millard 
Fillmore; 1860, for John Bell; 1864, he was elector for Lincoln and 
Johnson. 

In 1859 he was chosen to represent his District in the Thirty-sixth 
Congress, carrying the District by a majority of five hundred over 
Col. Savage, who had carried the District in previous elections, by a 



2 WILLIAM B. STOKES. 

majority of fifteen hundred. In the Thirty-sixth Congress he voted 
generally with the Republicans. 

Gen. Stokes was always a bold opponent of rebellion, in all its 
forms and disguised names. lie exerted all his power and influence 
to dissuade his fellow-citizens from entering the "rebellion in 1861. 

As soon as the Federal army appeared in Tennessee he hastened 
to join it, and was commissioned by Gov. Andrew Johnson to raise 
a regiment of cavalry, which he led gallantly through the war. It 
is justice to the brave men in this regiment to say that they did in- 
valuable service to the Government on many a well-fought field. 

At the close of the war Col. Stokes was honorably discharged, and 
was breveted, by President Johnson, Brigadier-General for his gallant 
services. 

He was one of the leading Unionists that sought to reorganize the 
new State government. 

In August, 1S65, Mr. Stokes was elected a member of the Thirty- 
ninth Congress, but, with the remainder of the Tennessee delega- 
tion, was not admitted until July, 1866. 

lie was constantly a bold and unyielding advocate of, the Con- 
gressional plan of reconstruction. He demanded, that .'the Govern- 
ment of the rebel States should be placed in the hands of loyal peo- 
ple, whether white or black. He was an early advocate of equal 
rights for all men, regardless of race or color. 

When it was proposed to modify the test oath, so that it could be 
taken by David F. Patterson, who had been elected a United States 
Senator from Tennessee, Mr. Stokes opposed the proposition with all 
his influence and elocmence. " On the night of the 22d of February 
last," said Mr. Stokes, ' ; I delivered a speech in Nashville, and there 
and then declared, if admitted as a member of this House, I would 
freeze to my seat before I woidd vote to repeal the test oath. [Long 
continued applause on the floor and in the galleries.] I have made 
the same declaration in many speeches since then. 

" Sir, I regard the test oath passed by the United States Congress 
as the salvation of the Union men of the South as well as of the 
158 



WILLIAM B. STOKES - . 3 

North. I regard it as sacred as the flaming sword which the Creator 
placed in the tree of life to guard it, forbidding anj one from partak- 
ing of the fruit thereof who was not pure in heart. Sir, this" 
light question. Repeal the test oath and you permit men to come 
into Congress and take seats who have taken an oath to the Confed- 
erate Government, and who have aided and assisted in carrying out 
its administration and laws. That is what we are now asked to do. 
Look back to the 14th of August, 1S61, the memorable day of the 
proclamation issued by, Jefferson Davis, ordering every, man within 
the lines of the Confederacy who still held allegiance to the Federal 
Government to leave within forty-eight hours. That order compelled 
many to seek for hiding-places who could not take the oath of allegi- 
ance to the Confederate Government. When the rebel authorities 
said to our noble Governor of Tennessee, - We will throw wide open 
the prison doors and let you out, if you will swear allegiance to our 
Government,' what was his reply? 'You may sever my head from 
my l>"dv. but I will never take the oath to the Confederate Govern- 
ment.' " 

In the summer of 1SG7, Mr. Stokes was re-elected to Congress by 
a majority of 6,440. 

The character of Mr. Stokes is thus drawn by lion. J. S. Fowler. 
Senator from Tennessee : 

" Gen. Stokes possesses by nature a constitution of the finest quali- 
ty, combining great activity and power of endurance. Xo man 
possesses greater quickness of apprehension, nor can any one devote 
himself more ardently to study. I lis time is always employed. Dur- 
ing his canvasses he studies all his own and his adversary's points 
by day and by night. 

" He early espoused the cause of loyal enfranchisement, and advo- 
cated with great force and power all the questions involved in the 
principle settled in Tennessee as the basis of reconstruction. Xo 
more earnest and effective advocate of the principle that loyal men, 
without distinction of race, should govern the Xation and the States, 
has been found. His speeches are numerous, and had great effect on 



WILLIAM B. STOKES. 



public opinion, not only in Tennessee, but throughout tbe country. 
He bas a restless anxiety for tbe success of every measure be espouses, 
until be bas secured bis point. As a debater he is open, bold, and 
ardent, and presses with force every argument and point in bis case. 
He is a man of great skill, and seldom fails to take advantage of any 
unguarded point in tbe defenses of bis opponent. Whoever makes a 
canvass with him must look -well to his facts, or he will be overthrown. 
" Gen. Stokes has been the architect of his own fortune. From 
bumble cbcumstances he has made himself one of the favored chil- 
dren of the Eepublic. He has attained this position by honest in- 
dustry, devotion to his country, and fidelity to his principles." 

160 





(i£^JLzZs(j 







JAMES A. (iARFIELD. 




?HE triumph of energy and talent over poverty and adver- 
sity is illustrated in the lives of nearly all whose names are 
S" conspicuous in the Congress of the United State-. In no 
case has this triumph been more signally achieved than in that of 
James Abraham Garfield, of Ohio. He was born in the township 
of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 1'.'. L831. Abraham 
Garfield, the father, who had emigrated from >>*ew York, died in 
1833, leaving a family of four children, of whom James was the 
yonngest, dependent upon the exertions of a widowed mother. 

James was permitted to attend the district school a few months of 
each year, and at intervals aided in supporting the family by working 
at the carpenter's trade. This not proving very remunerative, in his 
seventeenth year he secured employment as driver on the tow-path of 
the Ohio Canal, and soon rose to be a boatman. The dream of his 
ambition was to become a sailor on the lakes. The hardship and 
exposure incident to his life on the Canal brought on the fever and 
ague in the fall of 1848. When the young boatman had recovered 
from a three months' illness, it was too late to carry out his purpose 
of shipping on the lakes. lie was persuaded to defer this step until 
the following fall, and meanwhile to spend a tew months in attending 
a high-school in an adjoining county. 

Early in March, 1849, young Garfield entered " Geauga Acad- 
emy." Being too poor to pay the ordinary bills for board, he carried 
with him a few cooking utensils, rented a room in an old unpainted 
farm-house near the academy, and boarded himself. His mother 

had saved a small sum of money, which she gave him with Iter bless- 
11 161 



2 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ing at his departure. After that he never had a dollar which he did 
not earn. He soon found employment with the carpenters of the 
village; and working mornings, evenings, and Saturdays, earned 
enough to pay his way. The summer vacation gave him a longer 
interval for work, and when the fall term opened he had money enough 
laid up to pay his tuition and give him a start again. The close of 
this fall term found him competent to teach a district school for the 
winter, the avails of which were sufficient to pay his expenses for the 
spring and fall terms at the academy. He continued for several 
years, teaching a term each winter, and attending the academv 
through spring and fall, keeping up with his class during his absence 
by private study. 

By the summer of 1854, young Garfield, now twenty-three years 
old, prosecuted bis studies as far as the academies of bis native re- 
gion could carry him. He resolved to go to college, calculating that 
he could complete the ordinary course of study in two years. From 
his school-teaching and carpenter work he had saved about half 
enough to pay his expenses. To obtain the rest of the money, be 
procured a life insurance policy, which he assigned to a gentleman 
who loaned him what funds be needed, knowing that if he lived he 
would pay it, and if he died the policy would secure it. 

In the fall of 1854, young Garfield was admitted to the junior 
class of Williams College, in Massachusetts. He at once took high 
rank as a student, and at the end of his two years' course bore off the 
metaphysical honor of his class. 

On bis return to his Western home, Mr. Garfield was made 
teacher of Latin and Greek in the Hiram Eclectic Institute. So high 
a position did he take, and so popular did he become, that the next 
year he was made President of the Institute. His position at the 
head of a popular seminary, together with his talents as a speaker, 
caused him to be called upon for frequent pubbc addresses, both from 
platform and pulpit. The Christian denomination to which he be- 
longed had no superstitious regard for the prerogatives ot the clergy, 
to prevent them from receiving moral and religious instruction on 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 3 

the Sabbath from a layman of such unblemished character and glow- 
ing eloquence as Mr. Garfield. 

It was not Mr. Garfield's purpose, however, to enter the ministry ; 
and while President of Hiram Institute he studied law, and took 
some public part in political affairs. 

In is;. 1 .) he was elected to represent Portage and Summit Counties 
in the Senate of Ohio. Being well informed en the subjects of legis- 
lation, and effective in debate, he at once took high rank in the 
Legislature. His genial temper and cordial address made him popu- 
lar with political friends and opponents. 

The legislature of Ohio took a hold and patriotic stand in support 
of the General Government against the Rebellion which was just be- 
ginning to show its front, ruder the leadership of. Mr. Garfield a 
bill was passed declaring any resident of the State who gave aid and 
comfort to the enemies of the United States guilty of treason against 
the State, to be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for 
life. 

AVhen the first regiments of Ohio troops were raised, the State 
was wholly unprepared to arm them, and Mr. Garfield was dis- 
patched to Illinois to procure arms, lie succeeded in procuring five 
thousand muskets, which were immediately shipped to Columbus. 

On his return Mr. Garfield was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel 
of the Forty-Second Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. Soon after the 
organization of the regiment, lie was, without his own solicitation, 
made its Colonel. 

In December, 1861, Colonel Garfield, with his regiment, was 
ordered to Kentucky, where he reported to General Buell. He was 
immediately assigned to the command of the Eighteenth Brigade, 
and was ordered by General Buell to drive the Rebel forces under 
Humphrey Marshall out of the Sandy Valley in Eastern Kentucky. 
As Humphrey Marshall threatened the flank of General Buell's force, 
it was necessary that he should be dislodged before a movement 
could successfully be made by the main army upon the Rebel posi- 
tion at Bowling Green. 



4 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

A citizen soldier, who had never been in battle, was thus placed in 
command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of 
cavalrv. charged with the duty of leading them against an officer 
who had led the famous charge of the Kentucky Volunteers at Buena 
Vista. Marshall had under his command nearly five thousand men 
stationed at Paintville. sixty miles up the Sandy Valley. lie was 
expected to advance to Lexington, and establish the authority of the 
Provisional Government at the State Capital. 

Colonel Garfield took command of his brigade at the mouth of 
the Big Sandy, and moved with it directly up the valley. Marshall 
heard of the advance, and fell back to Prestonburg, leaving a small 
force of cavalry near his old position to act as an outpost and to pro- 
tect his trains. This cavalry fled before the advance of Colonel 
Garfield's force. He pushed the pursuit with his cavalrv till Mar- 
shall's infantry outposts were reached, and then, drawing back, he 
encamped with his whole force at Paintville. 

On the morning of the 9th of January. Garfield advanced with 
twenty-four hundred men, leaving about one thousand waiting for 
the arrival of supplies at Paintville. Before nightfall he had driven 
in the enemy's pickets. The men slept on their amis under a soak- 
ing rain, and by four o'clock in the morning were again in motion. 
Marshall's force occupied the heights of Middle Creek, two miles 
west of Prestonburg. Garfield advanced cautiously, and after some 
hours came suddenly in front of Marshall's position between the 
forks of the creek. Two columns were moved forward, one on either 
side of the creek, and the rebels immediately opened upon them with 
musketry and artillery. Garfield reinforced both his columns, but 
the action soon developed itself mainly on the left, where Marshall 
concentrated his whole force. Garfield's reserve was under fire 
from the enemy's artillery. He was entirely without artillery to 
reply, but from behind trees and rocks the men kept up a brisk 
fusilade. 

About four o'clock in the afternoon reinforcements from Paintville 
arrived. Unwonted enthusiasm was aroused, and the approaching 

104 



JAMES A. CAHFIELD. 5 

column was received with prolonged cheering. Garfield promptly 
formed his whole reserve for attacking the enemy's right and carry- 
ing his guns. Without awaiting the assault, Marshall hastily aban- 
doned his position, fired his camp equipage, and began a retreat 
which was not ended till he reached Abingdon, Virginia. 

Now occurred another trial of Garfield's energy. His troops 
were almost out of rations, in a rough mountainous country incapable 
nt' furnishing supplies. Excessive rains had swollen the Sandy to such 
a higlit that steainlmat men declared it impossibleto ascend the river 
with supplies. Colonel Garfield went down the river in a skiff to 
its mouth, ami ordered the Sandy Valley, a -mall steamer which had 
been in the quartermaster's service, to take a Load of supplies and 
startup. The captain declared it impossible, but Colonel Garfield 
ordered the crew on hoard . lie stationed a competent army officer 
on board to see that the captain did his duty, and himself took 
the wheel. The little vessel trembled in every fiber as she breasted 
the raging flood, which swept among the tree-top:; along the banks. 
The perilous trip occupied two days and nights, during which time 
Colonel Garfield was only eight hours absent from the wheel. 
The men in camp greeted with tumultuous cheering the arrival of the 
boat, with their gallant commander as pilot. 

At the pass across the mountain known as Pound Gap, Humphrey 
Marshall kept up a post of observation, held by a force of five hun- 
dred men. On the 1-ith of March, Garfield started with five hun- 
dred infantry and two hundred cavalry to dislodge this detachment. 
On the evening of the second day's march he reached the foot of the 
mountain two miles north of the Gap. Next morning he sent the 
cavalry along the main road leading to the enemy's position, while 
he led the infantry by an unfrequented route up the side of the moun- 
tain. While the enemy watched the cavalry, Garfield led the in- 
fantry undiscovered to the very border of their camp. The enemy 
were taken by surprise, and a few volleys dispersed them. They re- 
treated in confusion down the eastern slope of the mountain, pursued 
for several miles into Virginia by the cavalry. The troops rested 



6 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

for the night in the comfortable huts which the enemy had built, and 
the next morning burnt them down, together with everything left by 
the enemy which they could not carry away. 

These operations, though on a small scale compared with the 
magnificent movements of a later period in the war, yet had a very 
considerable importance. They were the first of a brilliant series of 
successes which re-assured the despondent in the spring of 1S62. 

They displayed a military capacity in the civilian Colonel, and a 
bravery in the raw recruits which augured well for the success of the 
volunteer army. Colonel Garfield received high praise from Gen- 
eral Buell and the War Department. He was promoted to the rank 
of Brigadier-General, his commission bearing the date of the battle 
of Middle Creek. 

Six days after the capture of Pound Gap, General Garfield re- 
ceived orders to transfer the larger part of his command to Louisville. 
On his arrival there, he found that the Army of the Ohio was already 
beyond Nashville on its march to the aid of Grant at Pittsburg 
Landing. He made haste to join General Buell, who placed him 
in command of the Twentieth Brigade. He reached the field of 
Pittsburg Landing at one o'clock on the second day of the battle, 
and bore a part in its closing scenes. His brigade bore its full share 
in the tedious siege operations before Corinth, and was among the 
foremost to enter the abandoned town after its evacuation by the 
enemy. He soon after marched eastward with his brigade, and re- 
built all the bridges on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad be- 
tween Corinth and Decatur, and took post at Huntsville, Alabama. 

General Garfield was soon after put at the head of the court- 
martial for the trial of General Turchin. He manifested a capacity 
for such work which led to his subsequent detail for similar service. 

About the 1st of August, his health having been seriously impaired, 

he went home on sick leave. As soon as he recovered, he was ordered 

to report in person at "Washington. He was made a member of the 

court-martial fir the trial of Fitz-John Porter. Most of the autumn 

was occupied with the duties of this detail. 
1GG 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 7 

In January, 1863, General Garfield was appointed Chief of 
Staff of the Army of the Cumberland, which was commanded by 
General Rosecrans. Ee became the intimate friend and confidential 
advisor of his chief, and bore a prominent part in all the military 
operations in Middle Tennessee during the spring and summer of 
18G3. 

The final military service of General Garfield was in the bat 
tie of Chickamauga. Every order issued that day, with one excep- 
tion, was written by him. He wmte the orders on the suggestion of 
his own judgment, afterwards suhmitting them to General Rosecrans 
for approval or change. The only order not written by him was thai 
fatal one to General Wood, which lost the battle. The words did not 
correctly convey the meaning of the commanding general. General 
Wood, the division commander, so interpreted them as to destroy 
the right wing. 

The services of General Garfield were appropriately recognized 
by the War Department in his promotion to the rank of Major-Gen- 
eral of Volunteers?, " for gallant and meritorious conduct in the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga." 

About a year before, while absent in the field, General Garfield 
had been elected a Representative to the Thirty-eighth Congress 
from the old Giddings district of Ohio. lie accordingly resigned his 
commission on the 5th of December. 1863, after a service of nearly 
three years. 

General Garfield immediately took high rank in Congress. He 
was made a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, of which 
in the Fortieth Congress he became chairman. In this committee 
his industry and his familiarity with the wants of the army enabled 
him to do signal service for the country. He soon became known as 
a powerful speaker, remarkably ready and effective in debate. 

General Garfield was re-nominated for the Thirty-ninth Congress 

by acclamation, and was re-elected by a majority of nearly twelve 

thousand. He was made a member of the Committee of Ways and 

Means, in which he soon acquired great influence. He studied finan- 

107 



8 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

cial questions with untiring assiduity, and was spoken of by the 
Secretary of the Treasury as one of the best informed men on such 
subjects then in public life. 

In I860, General Garfield was re-elected to the Fortieth Con- 
gress, in which he was made chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs. At a time when everything seemed drifting towards green- 
backs and repudiation, he took a bold financial position. As his 
views were opposed to those of many leading men of his party, and 
to the declarations of the Republican State Convention of Ohio, he 
seemed to hazard his re-nomination, but he did not hesitate firmly and 
full} 7 to avow his convictions. His financial doctrines were at length 
adopted by the entire party, and fully indorsed in the Chicago Re- 
publican Platform. On the 2Ath of June, 1S6S, he was renominated 
and in October following was elected to the Forty-first Congress. 

General Garfield is one of the most popular men now in public 
life. He is generous, warm-hearted, and genial. He is one of the 
most accomplished scholars in the country, and by laborious study of 
all subjects which require his attention, he is constantly adding to his 
breadth of intellect. 

In person he is about six feet in bight. He has a large head and 
a German cast of countenance, which a friend has aptly called a 
" mirror of good nature." 

1G8 




A/alfa/n 



CALVIN T. HULBURD. 



fJIE immediate ancestors of Calvin T. Hulburd were of New 




England birth and Welsh descent. Tiny emigrated to 
St. Lawrence County, New York, when that portion of the 
State was a wilderness. Here Calvin T. Bfrdburd was born, June 5, 
1809. 

Having enjoyed the limited advantages which the common schools 
.it' his neighborhood afforded, at the age of fifteen he entered an 
academy for the purpose of preparing for college. He finished his 
preparatory studies, and entered Middlebury College, Vermont, in 
1S25. During his four years' continuance there, he was known as 
a ready debater — one of the best Belles Lettres students of his class, 
and an easy and graceful writer. Though not allowed by the college 
regulations to be very prominent in politics, yet, during his college 
course, he was more than once left in editorial charge of the only 
Democratic paper then published in the vicinity of the college. 

In 1830, Mr. Hulburd commenced the study of law with the ven- 
erable Abraham Van Vechten, of Albany. The following year he 
spent at the law school connected with Yale College, and after an- 
other year in law offices of Troy and Albany, he was admitted to the 
New York bar. During the three years above named Mr. Hulburd 
not merely read but studied law ; and Judge Daggett, the then accom- 
plished principal of the New Haven Law School, is known to have said 
that he made, while there, the best proficiency of any student ever con- 
nected with the institution. 

All his friends anticipated for Mr. Hulburd a professional career of 
usefulness and honor. But when his professional studies entitled him 
to apply for admission to practice, his close application to books had 



2 CALVIN T. HULBURD. 

seriously impaired a strong constitution. lie found, on repeated 
trials, that lie could not bear the drudgery and close confinement of the 
office, and thus, at the very entrance to his chosen profession, he was 
constrained to turn anew to a more active business. 

In 1839, associated with an enterprising brother, Mr. Ilulburd 
purchased a few hundred acres of unimproved land, embracing a 
portion of the bed and banks of the St. Regis river, in the boun- 
daries of the town of Brasher. In the development of the re- 
sources of the town, and especially the improvement of its water- 
power, the brothers soon built up quite a manufacturing village, and 
gave to it the name of Brasher Falls — which it still retains. 

In 1842, Mr. Ilulburd was elected, on the Democratic ticket, to the 
State Legislature, where, in the first month of the session, he so de- 
fined his own position and that of his county, in the financial crisis 
of the State, as ever afterwards to be heard with respect and atten- 
tion. In the Assembly of 1843, he was placed at the head of the 
Committee on Canals — also that on Colleges, Academies, and Com- 
mon Schools. As Chairman of the latter Committee, he made a Re- 
port setting forth the necessity of retaining in the Schcol system of 
New York the office of County Superintendent, and suggesting va- 
rious amendments in the laws ; all of which were adopted. In 184-4, 
he was again returned to the Assembly; and as Chairman of the Ed- 
ucational Committee, he was required once more to examine and re- 
view the whole educational system of the State, expose its deficien- 
ces, and suggest remedies. In his labors and investigations pertaining 
to this important commission, Mr. Hulburd proved himself greatly 
efficient, and as already possessed of those liberal and enlightened 
views respecting the true theory of Public Schools which are doubt- 
less destined to universal prevalence in the country. In his Report 
to the Assembly, he asks: t; Is it too Utopian a hope to be indulged, 
that even in our day we shall be permitted to see education free- 
free in the district school, free in the academy, and free in the 
college — every advantage, every facility, free to all? Would not 
this be indeed Democratic?" 

170 



CALVIN T. HL'LBUKD. 3 

By order of the Assembly, Mr. Hulburd was directed to visit 
Massachusetts fur the purpose of examining the workingsof the Nor- 
mal schools established there. Returning, he made a Report com- 
prising the result of his observations and investigations. In this Re- 
port, he traced, in a clear and succinct manner, the origin, progress, 
and results of the establishment of teachers' seminaries in Europe, 
and in Massachusetts, so tar as they had been tried there, and con- 
cluded by recommending the establishment of such an institution in 
the State of New York, and the introduction of a Bill accordingly. 
This Bill, though encountering much opposition, was sustained by ar- 
guments so able and conclusive by Mi-. Hulburd, and other-, that it 
became a law by a large majority. 

After several years of voluntary retirement, in the fall of 1861 Mr. 
Hulburd was again elected to the Assembly, and was placed at the 
head of the Committee of Ways and Means, then as now the post of 
honor, and in the war exigences of the times, a position of peculiar 
responsibility. Early in the session he introduced important Reso- 
lutions, looking toward the adoption and maintenance of a sound 
financial system for the country. 

In the State legislature, Mr. Hulburd had the reputation of being 
a clear and vigorous thinker and an effective debater. In these par- 
ticulars he was classed with such men as Allen of Oswego, Bosworth 
of New York, Hoffman of Herkimer, Sampson of Rochester, and 
Seymour of Dtica. It was remarked of him by Mr. Hoffman, that he 
was the ablest man — Silas "Wright excepted — ever sent to Albany 
from St. Lawrence County. 

In 1862, Mi-. Hulburd was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress 
from what is familiarly known as the St. Lawrence District, and one 
of the most Radical in the State. He was made Chairman of the 
Committee on Public Expenditures, and a member of the Committee 
on Agriculture. During the first session lie delivered his maiden 
speech on the President's Emancipation Proclamation. Of this 
speech it was well said, that " had an older member with a recog- 
nized position uttered that speech, it would have attracted more at- 



4 CALVIN T. HULBURD. 

tention than it received for the soundness and sagacity of its views. 
It will, whenever and wherever read, be regarded as a complete, 
scholarly, and convincing argument — remarkable for the positions 
taken, and yet more remarkable that subsequent events have fully 
confirmed its correctness." 

But chiefly was Mr. Hulburd conspicuous in the Thirty-eighth 
Congress for his examination and fearless exposure, in a Report to 
the House, of abuses and corrupt practices existing in connection 
wish the New York Custom House. 

Re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. Hulburd was con- 
tinued at the head of the Committee on Public Expenditures, and 
placed also on the Joint Committee on the Library. During this 
session, he spoke on the finances, Niagara ship canal enterprise, and 
other subjects. But his efforts were mainly directed to a continu- 
ance of the New Tork Custom-IIouse investigation. By order of 
the House, he spent some time in Boston, examining the so-called 
Williams wine cases ; and his report of these cases settled not only 
their legal status, but the moral status of several officials implicated. 
The report resulting from the New York investigation, while it ex- 
posed other flagrant abuses, brought out clearly the corrupt purposes 
and practices of the Collector of that port, so that a resolution was 
passed by a more than two-thirds vote, declaring that the Collector 
ought to be removed. The publication of this report produced a 
great sensation, not only in New York, but in the country generally, 
and is considered as one of the most fearless and masterly documents 
that ever emanated from the American Congress. 

Mr. Hulburd, having been elected to the Fortieth Congress, was 
6till continued Chairman of the Committee on Public Expenditures. 
He has also served on the Reconstruction Committee, occasionally 
speakingon subjects emanating from that committee. He also deliv- 
ered a brief speech on the question of the Presidential impeachment. 

Mr. Hulburd, though a Radical, has never been regarded as an ex- 
tremist. On all subjects, his views have been characterized by libe- 
rality, comprehensiveness, and practical common sense. 

172 





>*L 




k K17 



WILLIAM A. PILE. 




' ^ILLIAM A. PILE was horn near Indianapolis, Indiana, 
February 11, 1S29. He received an academic education, 
studied theology, and became a clergyman of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, and a member of the Missouri Conference. 

In May, 1861, he joined the First Missouri Infantry, as Chaplain, 
and was with General Nathaniel Lyon in his campaign embracing the 
battles of Boonville and Wilson's Creek. After the battle of Boon- 
ville, Chaplain Pile was sent out with a party of live men to look 
after the dead and wounded. Believing in the Scripture doctrine, 
" Let the dead bury their dead," he went after the living rebels and 
captured twenty-six of them with their arms, and several teams and 
wagons, which were of great value in pursuing the campaign; on 
account of his gallantry in this action, he was called the " fighting 
parson.'' 

In September, 1S61, he was commissioned Captain of a battery in 
the First Missouri Artillery. It was his battery of Parrott guns of 
which General Pope made such favorable mention during the siege 
of Corinth. In August, 1S62, he was promoted to the Lieutenant- 
Colonelcy of the Thirty-third Missouri Infantry. In December, 
1862, he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the regiment stationed at 
Helena, Arkansas, where he was placed in charge of the construction 
of the fortifications of that post. 

In September, 1863, he was promoted to be Brigadier-General of 
Volunteers, and placed in charge of the organization of colored 
troops in the department of Missouri. In a few months, under 
great difficulties, he enlisted, armed, equipped, and sent into the field 
over seven thousand colored troops, who rendered efficient service on 



2 WILLIAM A. PILE. 

several hard-fought fields. From Missouri he was ordered to an im- 
portant command in Texas, and stationed at Brazos, Santiago, where 
he remained until the commencement of the Mohile campaign, in 
which he distinguished himself in command of his brigade, at Fort 
Blakely, being among the very first to enter the Fort, in the charge 
which resulted in its capture. 

For his gallantry on that occasion he was breveted Major-General. 
He was not allowed to retire to private life on being; mustered out of 
the army. His course during the war had made for him warm 
friends among the loyal men of Missouri, who pressed him into service 
as their candidate for Congress in the First District, against John 
Hogan, a Democrat. 

In this contest he made many friends and admirers by his sterling 
qualities of both head and heart, and secured his election as member 
of the Fortieth Congress. 

Mr. Pile has proved himself an able and efficient member of the 
House of Kepresentatives. His career in life having placed him 
in contact with the various classes of society, from which stand-point 
he studied the people and their wants, his speeches are more noted for 
their plain common-sense view taken of pending questions, than for 
beauty of style or finished eloquence, although for these qualities they 
compare favorably with those of his peers in the House. 

They evince his sterling patriotism and his concern for the welfare 
of the country in all its varied interests, urging " the largest freedom 
for all classes of people, not because of claims of peculiar races, but 
because freedom is the normal condition of all men. Therefore all 
would be benefited in proportion as any other class is benefited." 

His speech pending the question of the impeachment of President 
Johnson may be considered as a fair sample of his forensic efforts, 
and from this we present two or three brief extracts : 

" The President," said Mr. Pile, " has violated the plainest terms 
of the law solemnly enacted by the Congress of the people, accord- 
ing to and in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution. Amid 
the momentous and multiform duties of this body arising from the con- 

iri 



WILLIAM A. PILE. 

dition of the country emerging from a great war, with industrial 
pursuits deranged, business depressed, trade stagnant, values disturbed, 
the people overburdened with taxes, capital timid and withdrawn 
from business, and the public mind feverish and unsettled, every man 
going to his chamber al night with an undefined, and therefore all the 
more disturbing, conviction that ere he wakes in the morning some 
new danger may threaten the peace or life of his nation — amid all 
this, the highest officer known to the Constitution and the laws startles 
the nation, from the shores of the Atlantic, ' where the sons of the 
Republic keep watch at the rising of the sun,' to the golden shores 
of the Pacific, ' where they keep watch at the going down of the 
same;' has startled and moved the public mind and heart to its pro- 
fbundest depths by a violation of law at once so flagrant and assump 
tive as to leave him without excuse, and to make his defenders on this 
floor morally participants in his crime. ■ * * What insolent and 
brazen effrontery is it for his friends on this flour to claim for him 
innocent intentions and pacific motives! It will be difficult to find, 
in the annals of all the past, so many acts of a single tyrant disclosing 
the same wicked purposes, and exhibiting the same criminal intentions, 
as are found in this record of infamy made by Mr. Johnson. * * * 
" The violated supremacy and outraged majesty of the law demand 
the impeachment of the President of the United States for high 
crimes and misdemeanors. I urge and press his impeachment in the 
name and for the sake of the toiling millions of my countrymen, who 
are wearied and exhausted by the long and fearful struggle of the 
past, and the unsettled and deranged condition of the present. In 
the interest of the industrial pursuits of the country, unsettled and 
depressed as they are ; in the interest of stagnated trade and com- 
merce, and deranged and fluctuating finance ; and for the sake and 
in the name of the humanity and civilization of the age, I ask that the 
official career of this man shall he speedily and for ever terminated, 
in order that the country may have rest, quiet, and prosperity, and 
that the nation may continue in its high career of progress and civil- 
ization. 

175 



WILLIAM A. PILE. 






'• In the name of the half-million of brave men whose ghastly corpses 
lie beneath the green sward of the South, and who died for liberty and 
loyaltv, I demand the impeachment and removal of this man, who. 
in the exercise of the great power of his high office, seeks to betray 
into the hands of its enemies the country for which they fought and 
died." 

176 




Slv'Si^feypv 




'tTy-z*- <^- s 



v.. 



HORACE MAYXARD. 




fc, MONG the early settlers in New England, were Sir John 
Maynard and Rev. John Cotton. They emigrated from 
England with other prominent Puritans, to escape the 

tnmble with the Stuarts, and landed about 1635, in Boston, where 
Mr. Cotton was the first minister. Horace Maynard is a lineal de- 
scendant, in the seventh generation, on the father's side, from the for- 
mer, and on the mother's side from the latter. 

Horace Maynard was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, August 
30, 1814. lie received his academical education at Millburv, and his 
collegiate education at Amherst, where lie graduated with the highest 
honors of his class. Immediately after Ms graduation, he was called 
to the East Tennessee University, at Knoxville, where he remained 
five and a half years, first as Tutor and Instructor in Modern Lan- 
guages, and then as Professor of Mathematics. Meanwhile, having 
studied law, he was admitted to the bar, March 1, 1S44, and soon 
entered upon a large and lucrative practice. 

Mr. Maynard's political life commenced in 1S52. He was a mem- 
ber of the Whig National Convention, which assembled in Baltimore 
in June of that year. Though he urged the nomination of Mr. Fill- 
more, he acquiesced in that of Gen. Scott ; and as the electoral can- 
didate for his Congressional District, supported him with great zeal 
during a protracted, arduous, and successful canvass. 

The next year he was nominated by the Whigs a candidate for 

Congress, against the popular sitting member. The disaffection at 

the nomination of Gen. Scott took the form of serious opposition to 

Mr. Maynard, among the Whigs, and after one of the most spirited 

' 13 177 



2 HORACE MAYNARD. 

contests ever conducted in the State, he was defeated, but without los- 
ing either the sympathy of his friends, or the respect of his opponents. 

During the re-organization of parties which followed the with- 
drawal of the Whigs from the political arena, the ephemeral organi- 
zation of the Know-Nothing order, and the formation of the great 
Bepublican party, together with the sectional controversy which took 
shape in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he was occupied in 
his professional labors, and was an inactive, though not an unobserv- 
ant spectator. 

In the Presidential canvass of 1856, the contest in Tennessee was 
between Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Buchanan, and the issue the same that 
subsequently was settled by appeal to arms, though at that time less 
rugged and clearly defined. " Our rights in the Union, or our rights 
out of the Union,'* was already the cry. In response to earnest solic- 
itation, coming from not a few former opponents, Mr. Mayhard con- 
sented to accept a place upon the Fillmore electoral ticket for the 
State at large, which involved a three months' public discussion of all 
questions which entered into the election. In company with the late 
William II. Polk, brother of the President, and Buchanan elector, lie 
traversed the State from the extreme east to the Mississippi, making 
a series of appeals for the Union, vividly remembered to this day. 
By a small majority the State was carried for Buchanan. 

The next year, he was a second time candidate for Congress, in the 
same district which, four years before, had defeated him. Kunning 
some five hundred votes ahead of the party ticket, he was elected, and 
took his seat in the Thirty-fifth Congress. Here he found, in a some- 
what modified form, the same controversy which had given him so 
much anxiety in Tennessee. All his efforts, his votes and speeches, 
both in and out of Congress, were intended to avert the catastrophe 
which he saw clearly was impending. 

In 1859, he was elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, with but little 
opposition. The political character of the State had so far changed, 
that seven of the ten members constituting the delegation were elect- 
ed as Unionists. In the preceding Congress there were but three. 



HORACE MAYNAK1) 

The quadrilateral Presidential contest of L860 followed, stirring the 
political channels to their profoundest depths. Theavowals and com- 
mittals, on the question of slavery, by the Northern and the Southern 
opponents of the Democratic party, had been such, that aunionof 
the two was manifestly impracticable, indeed not desirable. Mr. 
Maynardtook an active part in organizing the latter, upon the simple 
platform once suggested by Mr. Clay, of the Union, the < institution, 
.-in,! the Enforcement of the Laws, with Belland Everett as their can- 
didates. The disunion purposes of the Southern Democracy were 
now apparent. "When Abraham Lincoln is President of the 1 nited 
States, I am a Rebel," was an outspoken declaration. Mr. Maynard 
denounced the traitorous purpose with unsparing severity, in and 
out of Tennessee. The electoral vote of the State was given for the 
Union cause. 

When returning to Washington, at the meeting of Congress, in 
December, 1S60, he fell in company with Mr. Douglas, then return- 
ing from his famous Presidential campaign; and remained with him 
one day in Lynchburg, Virginia. While there, be suggested to that 
gentleman a plan of pacification by a special committee in the House, 
of one from each State, to digest a policy for defeating the evident 
schemesofthe Southern leaders. Mr. Botelerof Virginia was agreed 
upon as the member to bring it forward. Accoi'dingly, on the sec- 
ond dav of the session the Committee was raised upon his motion. 
While the measure was not successful in suppressing the movements 
of the Secessionists, it did much to thwart and delay them, and was 
one of the early obstacles in their path. It was of the utmost im- 
portance to gain time. 

When Mr. Maynard returned home after the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln, he found the Unionists exulting and confident. They hail 
just carried the State by an apparent majority of nearly 70,000. 
Beneath the surface, however, he saw enough to excite lively appre- 
hensions. Not a few Union leaders had openly declared for the 
cause of disunion, and the others had nearly all coupled their allegi- 
ance to the Union with so many conditions, and provisos, that it 
1*79 



4 HORACE MAYNARD. 

had little force left. He lost no time in calling the attention of his 
confidential friends to this aspect of affairs. Associated with John- 
son, Brownlow, Nelson, and other active leaders, he at once entered 
upon a vigorous canvass against aggressions of the secessionists. 
The people of East Tennessee, where he resides, had taken position by 
their Government, and were not to be moved. All they desired was to 
have their cause vindicated and made respectable by a proper advocacy. 
It is hardly a paradox to say that the leaders followed the people. 

The biennial election for State officers and members of Congress 
occurred on the 1st of August, 1861. Mr. Maynard was a candidate 
for re-election, technically without opposition, his real opponent be- 
ing a candidate for the Richmond Congress, and the real issue sub- 
mitted to the people, whether they should be represented at "Wash- 
ington or at Richmond. This was the case in the other two Con- 
gressional Districts of East Tennessee. He was re-elected by an 
overwhelming majority in a largely increased vote. In anticipation 
of this event, he had made full arrangements, and passed at once 
beyond the rebel lines, and never re-entered them. The special ses- 
sion of Congress, called for the 4th of July, 1861, was too near its 
close to admit of his reaching Washington in time to take a seat in 
it. The interval between it and the regular session in December, 
was a time of ceaseless activity. Simultaneously with himself, had 
crossed into Kentucky a great number of young men, resolved to 
enter the military service for the suppression of the rebellion. Utterly 
without supplies themselves, and with no provision for receiving 
them or knowledge of their coming, they were in a truly precarious 
situation. Mr. Maynard procured for them temporary supplies, ven- 
turing in the name of the Government to promise payment — a prom- 
ise, it is needless to say, promptly fulfilled. He then hurried on t<>- 
"Washington to confer with the authorities there, and, if possible, to 
have Kentucky placed under the command of Major Robert Ander- 
son, a Kentuckian, and then in high renown for his defense of Fort 
Sumter. At "Washington, he found Mr. Johnson, then a Senator 
from Tennessee, conspicuous for his devotion to the Federal cause, 












ltd HACK MAYNARD, 

and in the full confidence of the Administration. Recognizing him 
as the proper head of the Onion party, not only of Tennessee hut of 

the Smith, lie co-operated with him earnestly and in the best faith. 
until after his accession to the Presidency. The organization of the 
Tennessee troops occupied a good 'leal of attention. This did not 
prevent him from visiting various portions of the North, ami. by 
public speech and private effort, rallying the people to increased zeal 
for the national cause. Scarcely a Northern State which, sometime 
during the war, he did not visit for this purpose. 

At the regular se^ion in December, he took his seat in the Thirty- 
seventh Congress. Uniformly and on all occasions he sustained Mr. 
Lincoln, whom from the first he regarded a- belonging to a very 
high order of men. His labors in Congress, however, were prin- 
cipally directed to thecondition of the Southern Union men. His 
constant aim was to secure their recognition as an element in the 
great conflict, and especially to secure for them representation in 
Congress by Congressional legislation. A hill introduced by him 
passed the House, and was defeated in the Senate, at the last moment 
of the session, by the factious opposition of a Senator from Kentucky. 
Had it become a law, the whole business of reconstruction would 
have assumed quite another character. 

By the failure of this bill, and the absence of any State legislation 
for the election of members of Congress, Tennessee was deprived of 
representation in the Thirty -eighth Congress. 

Another measure which originated with him in this Congress, was 
the new official oath, commonly known as the " test oath." He was 
always persuaded that the Confiscation Act would he practically 
futile, and he introduced a substitute which failed as such; hut its 
fifth section became a law. ami is the now famous " iron-clad" oath. 

At the close of the Thirty-seventh Congress. Mr. Maynard accepted 
from Mr. Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee, the office 
of Attorney General of the State, which he held until the close of the 
Governor's term and the restoration of the State government. 

In 1S64-, he was a member of the Republican National Convention 
181 



C, HORACE MAYNARD. 

in Baltimore, and with great zeal and effect urged the nomination of 
Mr. Johnson as the candidate for Vice-President, and subsequently 
took an active part in the canvass. 

January, 1SG5, saw the Union men of Tennessee assembled in Con- 
vention at Nashville, for the important purpose of restoring their 
Stare government, destroyed by tbe rebellion. Mr. Maynard parti- 
cipated, and saw the effort successful, over doubt, timidity, and disguis- 
ed opposition, and the government of Tennessee planted squarely 
upon the simple doctrine of the equality of all men before the law. 
and in the hands of loyal men. 

After Mr. Johnson succeeded to the Presidency, on the death of 
Mr. Lincoln, offer was made to Mr. Maynard of tbe office of District 
Attorney of tbe District of Columbia, Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, or Commissioner of Patents. He was also offered tbe mission 
to Mexico, to Peru, to Chili, or to Denmark, each and all of which be 
declined ; preferring to accept a nomination for re-election to Con- 
gress, as affording him a better opportunity to sustain tbe restored 
government of bis State, and to procure its recognition by Federal 
authority. After a canvass of nine days, giving barely time to pub- 
lish his name as candidate through the thirteen counties composing 
tbe district, he was elected by a large majority over five competitors 
of worth and deserved popularity. 

At the meeting of tbe Thirty-ninth Congress, he was selected by the 
delegation to present their credentials and to demand recognition of 
the new government of Tennessee, by admitting her chosen members 
to their seats. He was met with an emphatic refusal, and opposition 
somewhat personally offensive. All this be endured with patience 
and even temper, until, finally, the opposition dwindled to barely a 
dozen votes, and he had the satisfaction of seeing tbe restored govern- 
ment of his State recognized, and himself and his colleagues, in the 
Senate and House, admitted to their seats. This was his great work 
in the Thirty-ninth Congress. 

He was nominated, and with but little opposition re-elected to the 
Fortieth Congress, of which he is now a member. 

1« 








£ <o_ (jS 



■ 




JAMES BEOOKS. 




AMES BROOKS was born in Portland, Maine, Novem- 
ber 10, 1810. His father was captain and principal owner 
of a brig in the merchant service. His sea-faring life kepi 
him almost constantly from home, hence his son \\ a> left to the 
sole care of a mother, who from her energy and excellence of character 
was well fitted for the responsible duty. "While James was yet a 
child, the vessel which his father commanded was lost at sea with all 
on board. By this calamity Mrs. Brooks was made a widow and left 
penniless, for all the property of her husband was invested in the 
vessel. 

The widow, now left as the sole support of herself and three orphan 
children, exerted herself with great energy to maintain her family. 

James was sent to the public school, where he studied eagerly, and 
exhibited remarkable thirst for knowledge. 

When eleven years old, a situation was obtained for him in a store 
at Lewiston, then a frontier village on the Androscoggin. By con- 
tract with his employer he was to remain in his service until he was 
twenty-one, when he should receive a hogshead of New England 
rum. 

The store in which young Brooks was employed was a favorite 

resort of the village politicians of both parties, who came in the 

evening to hear the young clerk read the news. He gave them 

politics quite impartially, reading Whig doctrines from the Portland 

Advertiser, and throwing in a fair proportion of Democracy from the 

Argus. The town library was kept in the store in which young 

Brooks was employed, and this afforded him a free and wide range 

of attractive reading. 

133 



2 JAMES BROOKS. 

The employer of Brooks touk a great interest in hi? young clerk. 
He gave him opportunities of trading a little on his own account, 
and encouraged him to save his money. Having discovered that 
James was desirous of obtaining an education, he kindly proposed 
to release him from all ohligations of further service, and give 
him such assistance as he needed.. Young Brooks gratefully ac- 
cepted the offer, and in a few days made arrangements to enter an 
academy at Monmouth, Maine. He had saved money enough to pay 
the moderate price of one dollar per week for hoard. Blessed with 
good health, and devoted to hard study, he soon accomplished his 
purpose of fitting himself for teaching school. He then returned to 
Lewiston, and taught a school for the winter at a salary of ten dollars 
per month and his board. The following spring he found himself 
rich enough to enter Waterville College. Since even a few shillings 
were important to him then, in going to Waterville he carried his 
own trunk, which was neither large nor heavy. 

After pursuing his college studies for a year, he found it necessary 
to teach school in order to obtain money with which to continue his 
course. While teaching school, by hard study, he kept up his college 
studies ; and on his return, after a rigid examination, he was admitted 
to an advanced class. 

After two years more of study, young Brooks graduated, and left 
college as he had come, three years before, carrying his trunk. He 
returned to his mother's house in Portland with just ninety cents in 
his pocket. Without giving himself so much as a day of respite or 
recreation, he at once began to search for employment. Learning 
that a Latin school, for some time established in Portland, was about 
to change its teacher, Brooks applied for the situation, and, unknown, 
without influential friends, obtained it as the result of a rigid examin 
ation. From this time Brooks made a home with his mother and 
her two younger children, protecting and caring for them with filial 
and almost paternal devotion. 

Scarcely had Mr. Brooks become established in his school when he 

commenced the study of law with John Xeal, a celebrated lawver of 

184 



JAMES BROOKS 3 

Portland, and well known as an author. This gentleman manifested 
great interest in his student, who no doubt obtained quite as much 
literary knowledge from the author as legal instruction from the 
lawyer. 

Mr. Brooks soon after began to write anonymous letters for the 
Portland Advertiser, a daily Whig paper published by John Ed- 
wards. These articles were so popular that Mr. Edwards found out 
their author, and made him an oiler of s.">oo per annum to write 
constantly for his journal. This work Mr. Brooks continued for a 
whole year, keeping school and studying law at the same time. 

At length it could no longer be concealed that he was in part 
editor of a leading partisan newspaper, and had taken sides against 
General Jackson. This rendered it impossible for him to perform 
the duties of a teacher to his own satisfaction, and from that time he 
devoted himself wholly to the Advertiser, entering heart and soul 
into political life. 

At this time, though only twenty years old, Mr. Brooks began to 
attract attention as a political speaker, and soon became one of the 
most popular orators known to either party. 

The year he was twenty-one, Mr. Brooks was elected to the Legis- 
lature of Maine. In addition to his legislative duties he wrote for 
the Portland Advertiser. 

The next year he went to Washington, and commenced a series of 
letters from the national capital, thus inaugurating "Washington 
Correspondence," which has become a feature in the American press. 
These letters, being a novelty and full of spirited description, were 
extensively copied both in tin's country and in Europe. 

When Congress adjourned, Mr. Brooks traveled through the South, 
and wrote a series of interesting letters descriptive of Southern life. 
This was in the days of South Carolina's nullification, against which 
these letters were trenchant and severe. The writer dealt with slavery 
also, taking strong grounds against the "institution." This fact was 
brought up and made a subject of sharp remark by Mr. Price, of 
Iowa, in the Thirty-eighth Congress. Mr. Brooks replied that he 
183 



4 JAMES BROOKS 

saw no reason to change his opinions, though so many years had 
elapsed since the letters were written. 

The success of Mr. Brooks's letters from Washington and the 
South induced him to form the novel plan of traveling over Europe 
on foot, and sending to the Advertiser descriptions of what he saw. 
Mr. Brooks sailed from New York for England in one of the tine 
packet ships of the time. With a knapsack on his back, and letters 
of introduction from the first men of America in his pocket, he trav- 
eled over England and made himself familiar with its people. One 
day he dined with some nobleman, and the next walked thirty miles 
and slept in the thatched cottage of a peasant. He wandered over 
the hills of Scotland, and among the green fields of Ireland, seeing 
everything, and describing with vivacity all he saw. lie became 
acquainted with most of the great statesmen and authors of England. 
His description of his visit to the poet Wordsworth so interested the 
public that a splendid copy of his poems was forwarded to Mr. Brooks 
from the publishers, after his return home, as an acknowledgement 
of the fidelity and truthfulness of the letters. 

From England Mr. Brooks went to France. He crossed the Alps 
on foot, and made himself familiar with Switzerland, Italy, and por- 
tions ot' ( ilennany. The letters written during these travels attracted 
great attention to the paper for which they were written. They 
were extensively copied in this country, and were translated and 
re-copied abroad. 

When Mr. Brooks returned to America, he remained some weeks 
in New York, and there offers were made him to establish a daily 
paper to be called the X> w York Exjiress. Parties there proposed 
to furnish the capital for the paper, which was to offset the labor and 
talent which Brooks should supply as editor. 

The people of Portland, being reluctant to part with a young man 
of so much promise, offered to nominate him for Congress if he would 
return to them. He accordingly returned to Portland, and became 
a candidate against F. 0. J. Smith, a very popular man on the 

Democratic side, and a third candidate, whose name was Dunn. 

186 






JAMES BROOKS 

The district had for years been a Democratic stronghold, but it was 
only on a third trial. Dunn having been persuaded to withdraw, that 
Smith was elected by a hare majority. 

Mr. Brooks soon after returned to his incomplete enterprise in New 
York, and that year estahlished the New York Express, a daily 
journal, of which he is principal owner at the present time. I lisap 
pointment met him at the outset. Persons who had promised to 
stipply the fund- for the new enterprise tailed to meet their en 
ments, and it was by the most intense labor and personal privation 
that he struggled under the load of debt laid on him from the first. 
But he had health and strength, and that indomitable energy which 
nothing daunts or dismays. lie wrote leaders, acted as reporter, 
watched night alter night for the arrival of ship new-, and kept his 
journal up with an energy which the public soon began to recog 
nize. 

After a year or two the New York Daily Advertiser, published by 
William 1'.. Townsend, was connected with the Express. Gradually 
but surely the journal advanced in popularity under the editorial 
management of Mr. Brooks, who hail reached great political influ- 
ence, and was one of the most popular speakers in the Whig party. 

During the memorable political campaign of 1840, Mr. Brooks 
went to Indiana and -tumped that State for Harrison. He became 
a great favorite and devoted friend of Harrison, and was one of the 
few friends admitted to his room during his fatal illness. 

In the summer of ls-fl Mr. Brooks was married to Mrs. Mary 
Randolph, a widow lady of Richmond, Virginia. Such was hi- dis- 
like of slavery that he insisted that the emancipation of three or four 
household slaves belonging to her should precede the marriage cere- 
mony . 

In ls-17 Mr. Brooks was elected to the State Legislature, and two 
years later was elected a Representative in Congress from Xew 
York. He served through the Thirty-first and. Thirty-second Con- 
gresses, in which he distinguished himself by his eloquence of speech 

and effectiveness in debate. He was the associate and friend of 

187 



6 JAMES BROOKS. 

"Webster, Clay, and other leading spirits in Congress at that time, 
and kept pace with them in the stirring legislative movements of 
that period. Clay's efforts in the great compromise measures of the 
time met with his efficient support in the House, when all the varied 
knowledge which he had acquired in his travels and in his editorial 
life became available in his career of statesmanship. 

About this time Mr. Brooks purchased Mr. Townsend's interest in 
the Express, and took his younger brother into partnership in the 
establishment. 

Soon after the close of the Thirty-second Congress Mr. Brooks 
made another tour on the continent, and subsequently went a third 
time across the ocean, extending his travels to Egypt and the Holy 
Land. 

During these travels Mr. Brooks availed himself of the opportun- 
ities presented in each country of studying its language on the spot. 
He thus acquired the German, Spanish, and Italian, and perfected 
his knowledge of the French. 

Thus alternating his editorial duties with extensive travels, Mr. 
Brooks passed several years until the excitements and issues of the 
civil war induced him to enter political life again. In the canvass for 
the election of a member of the Thirty-eighth Congress, Mr. Brooks 
started as an independent candidate, but in the end the Democratic 
nominee retired, and Mr. Brooks was elected by a large majority. 
He took his seat as a member of the Thirty-ninth Congress ; but, after 
serving nearly through the long session, his seat was successfully con- 
tested by William F. Dodge. Surrendering his seat some time in 
April, Mr. Brooks was unanimously nominated for the Fortieth 
Congress, and was elected by a majority of six thousand votes. 

During the autumn of 1S67 Mr. Brooks was a member of the State 
( 'institutional Convention. 

In the Fortieth Congress Mr. Brooks is a member of the Eecon- 
struction Committee and of the Committee of Ways and Means. 
Able in argument, eloquent in speech, and plausible in address, he 
is a leading spirit on the side of the minority. 

1*8 



SIDXEY CLAEKE. 



("IDXEY CLARKE was born at Southbridge, Worcester 
County, Massachusetts, October 16, 1831. His am 
were among the earliest settlers of New England, and were 
numbered among the stanch loyalists of the Revolution. His 
grandfather was an officer under General Gates at the battle of 
Stillwater, and was present at the surrender of the British Army 
under General Burgoyne, at Saratoga. His father served in the war 
of 1812, and was a well known and prominent citizen of the county 
in which he resided. His mother was a woman of tine mind, great 
energy of character, and of devoted piety, and the mother of seven 
children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the youngest. 

Mr. Clarke did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education. At 
eighteen years of age, he left the farm and district school, to engage in 
mercantile pursuits at "Worcester, Massachusetts. While thus em- 
ployed, he commenced to write tor the press, and soon obtained recog- 
nition as a versatile and forcible contributor. 

It was at this time he became an active member of a literary so- 
ciety, whose members were young men who, in the main, were de- 
nied by their circumstances the advantages of a liberal education, but 
who, by means of the opportunities enjoyed in this and similar orga- 
nizations, acquired compensating attainments. In debate, as well as 
in other exercises, Mr. Clarke soon occupied a prominent position. 

In 1854, he returned to his native town, and became the editor and 
proprietor of the Southbridgi Pn ss, a weekly newspaper, which he 
continued for five years to edit and publish. During this time he 
took an active part in politics, identifying himself with the Free Soil 



2 SIDNEY CLARKE. 

party. I lis ti i-.—t vote was cast for Hale and Julian, in the election of 
1852. In 185(5 lie was a warm supporter of Gen. Fremont, and ren- 
dered efficient service both as editor and speaker throughout that 
memorable campaign. In the spring of 1858, in accordance with the 
advice of his physicians, he sought the more genial climate of Kansas, 
visiting the settled portions of the territory, and becoming ardently 
interested in the future of that historic community. The following 
year he fulfilled his purpose of making Kansas his home, and settled 
at Lawrence, in Douglas County. During the first two years of his 
residence in Kansas, Mr. Clarke became actively engaged in political 
affairs, and warmly espoused the cause of the "Radical wing" of the 
Free State party. 

In 1SG2, he was elected to the State Legislature, where he at once 
took front rank among the many able men who composed that body. 
In 18C3, he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of Volun- 
teers, by Mr. Lincoln, and was at once assigned to duty in the Bureau 
of the Provost-Marshal General as Acting Assistant Provost-Marshal 
General for the District of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Dakota, 
with headquarters at Leavenworth, Kansas. In this line of dutv he 
at once obtained recognition as an efficient and popular administra- 
tive officer. In the strict enforcement of the provisions of the 
Enrollment Act, and the superintending of the volunteer recruiting- 
service, his ollice in a widely-extended district was a model of perfect 
organization and efficiency. 

At the Republican State Convention, in the autumn of 1S(>.'>, Mr. 
Clarke was chosen Chairman of the Republican State Central Com- 
mittee, a position previously held by the ablest of the old Free State 
leaders. From this time forward, his record has been one of cease- 
less activity and constantly enlarging influence in the political affairs 
of his State. So long as General -las. II. Lane remained the advocate 
and exponent of Radical ideas, he heartily sympathized with and 
supported him. When the Legislature of 1864 irregularly elected 
Gov. Thomas Carney United States Senator, to supplant General 
Lane, Mr Clarke went at once before the people, promptly denouncing 
190 



SIDNEY CLARKE ;; 

the election as fraudulent and illegal, and the fruit of a conspiracy. 
The campaign fully established his reputation for ability and politi- 
cal sagacity, and the action of the Legislature was overwhelmingly 
repudiated. On the opening of the Presidential campaign of 1864, 
Mr. Clarke canvassed the State in favor of Mr. Lincoln's re-election ; 
and by the State Convention of his party, on the 8th of September, 
L864, was nominated as a candidate for the Thirty-ninth Congress. 

Although bitterly opposed by malcontents, who coalesced with the 
Democrats to secure his defeat, lie was triumphantly elected over 
his competitor, General Albert L. Lee, by more than fifteen hundred 
majority. lie was renominated for the Fortieth Congress by acclama 
tion, and was elected by a majority of more than eleven thousand. 
For the third time renominated, he has again been re-elected, receiv- 
ing the handsome indorsement of a majority of about seventeen 
thousand. 

As a member of ( longress, Mr. Clarke has worked with great indus- 
try for the interests of his constituents, and enjoys the reputation of 
an able, zealous, and faithful representative. As a member of the 
House Committee of Indian Affairs and the Pacific Railroad Com- 
mittee, while representing a new State, extensive in territory, with 
diversified local interests, and rapidly developing its vast resources, he 
has secured the confidence of his constituents by steadfast devotion 
to the rights and interests of the great mass of the people. His first 
speech in Congress was on behalf of unqualified impartial suffrage 
in the District of Columbia, and he has always advocated and voted 
for the legislation which represents the advanced ideas of the Repub- 
lican organization. lie has participated in all the leading conflicts 
which have made the policy of Congress memorable during the six 
years last passed, while assiduously laboring for local measures, looking 
toward the material development of the State he represents. Mr. 
Clarke possesses an active, nervous temperament, but is endowed with 
remarkable powers of endurance, physically as well as mentally. In 
one of his political campaigns in Kansas, in less than thirty days he 
made nearly seventy speeches, traveling in an open carriage at the 



SIDNEY CLARKE. 



same time above twelve hundred miles, visiting the most remote sec- 
tions of the State, and concluding his labors apparently unaffected 
by fatigue. 

Mr. Clarke has devoted himself with great assiduity and sagacity to 
the development of the material interests of his rapidly-growing 
State : more especially to the protection of its people against the 
growth of those land aud other monopolies, which in all "Western States 
have had to be struggled against. In doing this, however, he has 
wisely and liberally aided all reasonable efforts to promote public and 
private improvements. 

192 



FEKSTAJ^DO WOOD 




§* F Quaker ancestry, Fernando W I was born in Philadel- 
phia, June 14, 1812. His father was a merchant of good 
standing of that city. His original ancestor in this country 
was Henry "Wood, who emigrated early in the seventeenth century, 
settling in Ehode Island ; but, being a Quaker, he was driven out of 
that settlement by the persecutions of the Puritans. From there he 
went, in 1656, to the Delaware Kiver, and became a fanner in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia, on that which is now the New Jersey side 
of the river. For over two hundred years the family have resided in 
that neighborhood. The original family burial-ground is yet existing 
on the banks of the river a short distance north of Camden. 

The father of Mr. Wood removed to New York in 1820, where the 
latter has resided ever since. He commenced his busy life as a clerk 
in 1826, but subsecpiently made cigars, skill in the manufacture of 
which he had picked up as an amateur and merely from observation. 
This employment he pursued but a short time. 

He commenced business on his own account in 1832, but the 
cholera prevailing to a frightful extent in that year in New York, he 
was unsuccessful, and was obliged to return once more to the voca- 
tion of a clerk. In 1S36 he again commenced business in a small 
way as a merchant. He met with fair success, but, imbibing an early 
taste for political affairs, he devoted much time to those more con- 
genial pursuits. 

In 1S38 he was made chairman of the Young Men's General Com- 
mittee of Tammany Hall; and in November, 1810, was nominated 
and elected a member of the Twenty-seventh Congress. This was 
13 193 



2 FERNANDO WOOD. 

the memorable presidential campaign resulting in the defeat of 
Martin Van Buren, and the election of General Harrison. Mr. Wood 
took his seat in ( longress at the called session in May, 1841. He was 
quite a young man, but nevertheless participated in the debates with 
much success. To do this in a Congress which comprised statesmen 
of great ability, was no easy thing. In the Senate were Henry Clay, 
John C. Calhoun, Silas "Wright, Thomas II. Benton, Levi Woodbury, 
James Buchanan, and others almost equally distinguished. In the 
House were Millard Fillmore, John Quincy Adams, Caleb dishing. 
Robert C. Winthrop, Henry A. Wise, R. M. T. Hunter, and others 
as prominent. This Congress was not only distinguished for the 
ability of its members, I nit also for the great questions which were 
discussed and passed upon. Henry Clay's Fiscal Bank Scheme, the 
Tariff, the Distribution of the Proceeds of the Public Lands, anil 
other measures of magnitude and importance, called out the ablest 
intellect of the times. Mr. Wood spoke on most of these questions, 
his hearing and mode of handling his subject winning the commenda- 
tion of even those who differed with him. 

His maiden speech was delivered in May, 1842, on Mr. Clay's 
Fiscal Bank Scheme. He spoke an hour, principally against the 
practicability of the measure, and explanatory of its effects upon the 
commercial interests of the country. On this occasion, ex-President 
Adams, then fast declining to the grave, approached him with totter- 
ing steps and congratulated him on his speech. 

The chief effort of his service in that Congress was devoted to the 
success of the application to give the aid of the Government in show- 
ing the practicability of the transmission of intelligence by magnetic 
telegraph. Until the year 1842 no such proposition had been made ; 
indeed, the inventor himself had not until then reached that degree 
of confidence in its feasibility as to venture upon an extensive applica- 
tion of it for useful purposes. Professor Morse made his application 
to this Congress for an appropriation sufficient to lav wires along the 
sleepers of the railroad track between Washington City and Balti- 
more. He was confident of its success, but not so with members of 

101 



FERNANDO WOOD. 3 

Congress and the public generally. Mr. Wood took an active part 
in making Converts. At his instance Professor Morse placed a mag- 
netic battery in the Committee Room of Naval Affairs, of which Mr. 
Wood was a member, and connecting it by wires with another battery 
in the Committee Room of Naval Affairs in the Senate, showed, by 
the transmission of communications from one to the other, that the 
plan was sufficiently feasible to warrant an appropriation, if only as 
an experiment. It was with much difficulty, however, that the pre 
judice against it was overcome. 

Morse himself was poor. He became almost discouraged ; hut by the 

youthful energy and enthusiasm of W 1, aided by his colleague, Mr. 

Charles G. Ferris, then a member from Now York, the hill was 
finally carried tlu'ough, the money appropriated, and Morse mad.' the 
superintendent .for it> construction and management at a salary of 
$2, 500 per year. It was soon ascertained that the jar of the running 
trains prevented the free transmission of tin' fluid along the wires 
when connected with the tracks. Poles, as now used, were substi- 
tuted, which have been improved upon since in various respects. 

Professor Morse has never ceased to recognize the great obligations 
which he and the world at large are under to Mi'. Wood tor his early 
appreciation and active support of the origin of the magnetic tele- 
graph. 

Mr. Wood retired for a time from public life at the end of the 
Twenty-seventh Congress, March 4, 1S43. Being poor, and with the 
responsibility and care of a young family, he saw that he could not 
afford to pursue his taste for politics. lie resumed business as a mer- 
chant, commencing in South Street, New York, us a ship chandler 
and ship furnisher. lie eschewed politics altogether, devoting him- 
self entirely to his business. His efforts were crowned with success. 
He soon became the owner of several vessels, engaged in a profitable 
trade with the British West India Islands. 

In 184S he fitted out the first sailing vessel that left New York for 
California after the discovery of gold there. In this expedition he 
met with unexpected success, realizing a little fortune by the result. 

195 



i FERNANDO WOOD. 

The same year he invested a part of these returns in suburban New 
York property. At that time the city did not extend" above Thirtieth 
Street. Mr. Wood purchased the ground upon which he now resides, 
lying along Broadway from Seventy-sixth to Seventy-eighth Street, 
for a few thousand dollars, for which he was offered, in 1868, $400,000. 
On the 1st of January, 1S50, he retired from business, returning to 
an active participation in the politics of the times. He was the 
Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York in November, 1850, 
but was defeated by A. C. Kingsland, Esq., the Whig candidate 
Not discouraged by this result, he continued in politics, determined, 
sooner or later, to rule over a city for which he had so much affec- 
tion, and where he saw much room for municipal improvement. 

He was the Democratic candidate again in 1851, and was elected. 
During his administration of the duties of that office, he reformed 
nearly all of the great abuses which then existed. He was the chief 
promoter in establishing the Central Park, and had charge of and 
carried out the original plan for its ornamentation and arrangement. 
By his invitation a Board was created for deciding upon the plans, 
consisting of Washington Irving, George C. Bancroft, William Cullen 
Bryant, K. C. Winthrop, Edward Everett, and other distinguished 
men of acknowledged taste and accomplishments. He was the first 
to place uniforms on the police, and instituted many other improve- 
ments, which at the time were highly commended, even by political 
enemies. He was re-elected in 1S56 and 1859. During his admin 
istration of the duties of that office he evinced much energy, and a 
far higher appreciation of its powers and responsibilities than its in- 
cumbents usually do. He made war upon the evil-doers always to 
be found in a large city, and rendered himself odious to political 
friends and foes by the positiveness of his actions and the indiscrim- 
inate course he adopted towards all, irrespective of station or political 
opinions. The leaders of the party to which he was attached became 
hostile in consequence ; but in opposition to them he organized the 
Mozart Hall party, so well known in the politics of the city and 
State ever since. 

196 



FERNANDO WOOD 5 

He was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress, representing tin- 
Fifth District of New York. This was during the war. He d 
several speeches in favor of the appointment of commissioners to pro- 
cure a cessation of hostilities. He deprecated the continuance of the 
conflict until every means of procuring an amicable adjustment had 
been tried and proved futile. He always declared himself against the 
efforts of the Southern States to break up the Union. But he thought 
that the South had early seen the error and futility of the Secession 
movement, and that there would lie no difficulty in bringing about an 
abandonment of the effort and a restoration of peace and go, id-will. 

After the close of the war, the enemies of -Mr. Wood affected to 
believe that the allegations which had been published against hi- 1<>\ 
alty had found a lodgment in the public mind, and that Ids career 
in political life was ended. 

Not being willing to admit this, he resolved on taking the boldest 
and most effectual means of testing the matter, by presenting himself 
as a candidate for Congress on his own record, with no other aid than 
his personal hold on popular esteem. 

Accordingly, in October, 1SG6, Mr. Wood issued an address to the 
electors of the Ninth Congressional District, in which he anm tunced 
himself as an independent candidate for Congress, not the nominee 
of any party, faction, or convention. " I desire the election," said he, 
" as a popular rebuke to those who utter the malicious falsehood, that 
during the war \ was a ' rebel sympathizer ' and disunionist ; and also 
to be placed in an official position where, unrestrained by partisan 
obligations, I may follow the dictates of my own judgment for the 
public good." 

The result of this bold and independent movement was the election 
of Mr. Wood to the Fortieth Congress by a majority of nearly two 
thousand votes. 

In the proceedings of the Fortieth Congress, Mr. Wood took a 

prominent part. He participated in the debate on the Resolution to 

impeach the President, on the Freedmen's Bureau, on the release of 

Americans imprisoned in Ireland, and on the Internal Revenue Bill. 

107 



G FERNANDO WOOD. 

His chief effort, and that in which he felt the most interest, was 
his proposition to pay the public debts, reduce taxation, and return to 
specie payments by the development, for Government account, of the 
mineral resources lying in the Pacific States and Territories. To this 
important proposition he had given much thought and investigation. 
Satisfied of its practicability, he spoke at length in favor of the plan 
on the 3d of June, 1S6S, sustaining his position with force and power, 
lie predicted that the supply of the precious metals would soon 
cease, unless the Government entered the field with large outlay, and 
using a higher order of scientific talent in revealing and analyzing 
the ores. 

"The mines of California," said he, "have produced $1,100,000,- 
000, though worked by feeble efforts, imperfect machinery, and in- 
sufficient capital. Other territory, even yet more valuable, lias been 
added to thy mineral resources of the nation. All the vast space ly- 
ing between the 34th. and 49th degrees north latitude, and the 104th 
and 124th parallels of longitude, contains an inexhaustible supply. 
That territory belongs to the Government by conquest and by pur- 
chase. I am satisfied that a yield from two hundred to three hun- 
dred millions a year can be readily obtained, after the proper knowl- 
edge and talent are obtained to prosecute them ; this may be done 
after the first year, and increased afterwards. Then why should we 
not avail ourselves of these resources ? "Why borrow, and oppress 
the people by taxation, external and internal, when we have such re- 
sources at command '. " 

This important proposition, and the arguments employed to urge 
its adoption, were received with incredulity. Its author, however, 
was not discouraged, and predicted the final success of the scheme. 

Although Mr. "Wood was elected to the Fortieth Congress un- 
pledged to any party, he nevertheless generally acted with the Dem- 
ocrats. Although differing with many of his Democratic friends 
in some particulars, he acted with them in opposition to the measures 
which the majority from time to time proposed and passed. 

108 







C^sCLsiZsfasO V c£C&KJ 






AUSTIN BLAIE. 



Sljj§£ MONG the loyal and faithful Governors who cordiallj co 
&&&M operated witli President Lincoln in puttingdown the Rebel- 
lion, none deserve more honorable mention than Austin 
Blair, of Michigan. He was horn February 8, 1818, in the town of 
Caroline, Tompkins County,New York. His ancestors were from 
Scotland, emigrating to America in the time of George I. The fam 
ily, from generation togeneration, seems to have pursued the business 
offarming. The subject of this sketch was the first who interfered with 
this arrangement, to become a professional man. Theeducation ofhis 
boyhood was at the common school, until, at seventeen, he was 
sent to the Seminary at Cazenovia, New York, where he remained a 
year and a half. lie then entered Hamilton College, a1 Clinton, 
New York, becoming a member of the Sophomore class. Here be 
pursued his studies to the middle of his Junior year, when lie entered 
Union College, Schenectady, being attracted thither by the great 
reputation of President Nott, Here he was graduated in 1839, and 
never re-visited his Alma Mater, until, in 1868, he delivered the an- 
nual address before the literary societies of that institution. 

After leaving college, Mr. Blair read law for two years, in the 
office of Sweet & Davis, at < >wego, N. Y. At the end of this time 
he was admitted to the bar. He immediately emigrated to Michigan, 
and commenced practice at Jackson, the place of his present resi- 
dence. In a short time he removed to Eaton Kapids ; and after re- 
maining there two years, he returned to .Jackson, and engaged actively 
in the practice of his profession. While at Eaton Rapids, he was in 
L842, elected to the office of County Clerk, which was his first office. 



199 



2 AUSTIN BLAIR. 

At this time Mr. Blair was a Whig in politics, and in 1S4A joined 
in the canvass for Henry Clay with great zeal ; and, two years later, 
he was sent to the-lower house of the State Legislature. In 1848, he 
refused any longer to support the Whig ticket, and for two reasons : 
first, because of his great partiality for Mr. Clay, whom the nomina- 
ting convention passed by in favor of General Taylor; and, secondly 
and principally, because of his decided anti-slavery sentiments. 

After the nomination of General Taylor, Mr. Blair attended the 
convention at Buffalo which put in nomination Van Buren ami 
Adams. This ticket he supported with all his might, not that he 
cherished any hope of success, but that he thought it was time for a 
beginning to be made in the right direction. 

In 1852 he was elected Prosecuting- Attorney of Jackson Countv, 
hulling that office daring two years. In 1854, Mr. Blair actively 
participated in the proceedings at the convention at Jackson, which 
resulted in the foundation of the Republican party in Michigan. 
This convention brought together the anti-slavery men of the Whig 
and Free-Soil parties in that State, and resulted in a complete tri- 
umph over the Democracy at the Fall election. He was, at this time, 
chosen a Senator in the State Legislature. In 1S56, he was an ear- 
nest supporter of Fremont and Dayton. At the November election 
of 1860, Mr. Blair was chosen Governor of Michigan, and he entered 
upon his executive duties in the following January. Fully aware of 
the perilous position in which the country had been placed by the 
spirit of rebellion which then pervaded the Southern States, ami 
foreseeing the inevitable collision, he commenced his official career 
with a full appreciation of the responsibilities of his office. His ju- 
dicious and prompt administration of military affairs in the State, 
soon distinguished him as possessing great executive ability, ardent 
love of country and true devotion to the interests and honor of his 
State. These characteristics soon secured for him the confidence of 
the people of both political parties, which he retained during his en- 
tire four years' administration. 

The inaugural of Governor Blair, which was a profound and philo- 
200 



AUSTIN BLAIR. 

sophical discussion of the true nature of our form of government, 
and of the real signification of the existing and impending issues, 
closed with these emphatic words : 

" It is ;i question <>f war that the seceding States have to look in 
the fare. They who think that this powerful Government can be 
disrupted peacefully, have read history to no purpose. The sons oi 
the men who carried arms in the Seven Years' War with the most pow- 
erful nation in the world, to establish this Government, will not hesi- 
tate to make equal sacrifices to maintain it. Most deeply must we 
deplore the unnatural contest. < >n the heads of the traitors who 
provoke it, must rest the responsibility. In such a contest the God 
ol battles has no attribute that can take sides with the revolutionists 
of the Slave State-. 

•• I recommend yon at an early day to make manifest to the gentle 
nen who represent this State in the two Eouses of Congress, and to 
the country, that Michigan is loyal to the Union, the Constitution, 
and the Laws, and will defend them to the uttermost ; and to proffer 
to the President of the United States the whole military power of 
the State for that purpose. Oh, for the firm, steady hand of a Wash- 
ington, or a Jackson, to guide the ship of State in this perilous storm. 
Let ns hope that we shall find him on the 4th of March. Meantime, 
let us abide in the faith of our fathers — ' Liberty and Union, one 
and inseparable, now and for ever.' " 

Marshaled by such a leader, the Legislature was neither timid nor 
slow in declaring the loyalty of Michigan to the Union. In joint 
resolution, offered February -2. 1861, it declared its adherence to the 
Government of the United States, tendered it all the military power 
ami material resources of the State, and declared that concession and 
compromise were not to he offered to traitors. Still, nothing defi- 
nite was done; no actual defensive or aggressive military steps were 
taken, until rebel foolhardiness precipitated the struggle that had be- 
come inevitable, by converging upon Fort Sumter the fire of the en- 
circling batteries of Charleston Harbor. On April 12, 1S61, the 
news was received at Detroit that the rebels at Charleston had ac- 
201 



4 AUSTIN BLAIR. 

tually inaugurated civil war by firing upon Fort Sumter. This in- 
telligence created much excitement, and in view of the uncertainty of 

coining events, the people commenced looking around to estimate how 
united they would be in the cause of the Union. On the following 
day, a meeting of the Detroit Bar, presided over by the venerable 
Judge Ko>s \Vilkins. was held, and resolutions were adopted pledging 
that community to "stand by the Government to the last," and re- 
pudiating the treason of the Smith. By the following Monday, April 
15, when the surrender of the South Carolina fortress was known 
throughout the land, and the call of the President for 75,000 volun- 
teers bad been received, the entire State was alive to the emergencies 
and the duties of the hour, and the uprising of the people was uni- 
versal. Public meetings were held in all the cities and most of the 
towns, pledges of assistance to the nation in its hour of peril made, 
and volunteering briskly commenced. 

On Tuesday. April 16, Governor Blair arrived in Detroit, and 
during the day he issued a proclamation calling for a regiment of 
volunteers, and ordering the Adjutant-General to accept the first ten 
companies that should offer, and making it the duty of that officer 
to issue all tin' uecessary orders and instructions in detail. The move- 
ment thus inaugurated did not slacken in impetus nor lessen in ardor. 
The State responded to the call of its authorities most promptly. 
Tin- patriotism of the people was in a blaze, war meetings were 
held in every town, and the tender of troops from all points in the 
State far exceeded the requisition. 

The first call made by the President upon Michigan for troops to 
aid in the suppression of the rebellion, was, as before stated, for one 
regiment only, which was promptly met by the muster into ser- 
vice of the First regiment, and that was soon followed by the second. 
At the same time several other regiments were persistently pressing 
for service, and some were authorized to organize without provision 
of law. while many companies found service in other States. In the 
meantime the organization of the Third and Fourth regiments had 
been commenced on the responsibility of the Governor alone, and 



AUSTIN BLAIR. 

while that was in progress, he received instructions from the War 
Department to discontinue the raising of more troops, and that it was 
important to reduce, rather than enlarge the number. 

The Governor, foreseeing an immediate necessity for preparation to 
meet coming emergencies and future calls, assumed the responsibility 
of establishing a camp of instruction at Fort Wayne, near Detroit, 
for the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Fifth, Sixthj ami 
Seventh regiments; and en the 21stofMay, companies were assigned 
to those regiments, and their officers were ordered to assemble at Fort 
Wayne en the 1 9th ■•!' June. 

A course of instruction followed, with much success, until Augi 
when the camp was broken up and the force sent to various Lo< 

t<> recruit their men ami organize the regiments. This was ac< t- 

plished with astonishing promptness, the Sixth being mustered in 
August 20th ; the Seventh, August 22d ; ami the Fifth, August 2Sth. 
All had left for the field prior to the 12th of September. 

The establishment of the Camp of Instruction attracted much at- 
tention in other States, and must favorable comments from public jour- 
nals. It has always been considered in Michigan as a most judicious 
ami eminently successful effort, its value becoming mure and more 
apparent as the war progressed, not only in the efficiency of these 
particular regiments, hut in many others having the benefit of offi- 
cers who had received the instruction of the camp. 

The law- of ( Jongress of August 3d, had authorized the President to 
receive into service 500,000 volunteers. The proportion of Michigan 
was understood at the time to be 19,500. In response to this requi- 
sition, the State continued recruiting, sending regiment after regiment 
to the field : and up to the end of December, had sent to the front 
three regiments of cavalry, one of engineers and mechanics, twelve 
of infantry, two companies of cavalry for the ''Merrill Horse,'' two 
companies for 1st and 2d regiments V. S. Sharp-shooters, ami five 
batteries. 

In response to the call of the President of October 17. 1863, for 
300.000 more, Governor P.lair issued his proclamation for the Miehi- 

203 



(J AUSTIN BLAIR. 

gan quota of 11,298, in which he makes use of the following stirring 
language. 

" This call is for soldiers to fill the ranks of the regiments in the 
field, — those regiments which by long and gallant service have wasted 
their numbers in the same proportion that they have made a distin- 
guished name, both for themselves and the State. The people of 
Michigan will recognize this as a duty already too long delayed. 
Our young men, I trust, will hasten to stand beside the heroes of An- 
tietam, Gettysburg, Yicksburg, Stone Eiver, and Chicamauga." 

The Governor's stirring proclamation, and the patriotic response of 
the people of Michigan, immediately followed each successive call of 
the President for volunteers. 

During his four years' administration, Governor Blair devoted his 
entire time, talents, and energies to the duties of his office. "When he 
left the Executive chair, he had sent into the field eighty-three 
thousand three hundred and forty-seven soldiers. In his message de- 
livered to the Legislature, January 4, 1S65, he greeted them most aft'ec- 
tionatelv from the Capitol of the State, on vacating the chair which 
lie had so well filled and so highly honored during the years of the 
war that had passed. 

July 4, 1867, Gov. Blair delivered an oration at the laying of the 
corner-stone of the Michigan Soldiers' Monument. It comprised an 
able and faithful resume of the principal conflicts of the war, re- 
viewing in considerable detail the prominent part taken in those 
bloody scenes by the brave and hardy troops of Michigan. 

The brief Congressional record of Gov. Blair is what might be ex- 
pected from the antecedents of the man. He is an earnest Eepubli- 
can, a strong friend and supporter of the Reconstruction measures, and 
a stern enemy to every form of repudiation, and to every tendency in 
that fatal direction. His speech upon the national finances on the 
floor of the House, March 21, 1868, is eminently just and convincing, 
and such as could hardly fail of commending itself to all fair and 

honest minds. 

204 





y&^J* 



JAMES GILLESPIE BLAIKE. 



'AMES GILLESPIE BLAINE was born in Washington 
County, Pennsylvania, in L830. His ancestors were among 
the early Scotch-Irish settlers in that State. His great 
grandfather, Ephraim Blaine, was honorably distinguished as an offi- 
cer in the Revolutionary war. He was originally a Colonel of the 
Pennsylvania Line; and for the last four years of the struggle, was 
Commissary General of the Northern Department. It is related in 
Applet. m's "Cyclopedia' 1 that "during the dark winter at Valley 
Forge, the preservation of the American army from starvation was 
in a great degree owing to the exertions and sacrifices of Colonel 
Blaine." 

The immediate subject of this sketch graduated at Washington 
College, Pennsylvania, in 1847. After two or three years spent in 
teaching, he adopted the editorial profession, and removed to Maine 
in 1852, where he successively edited the Kennebec Journal and the 
Portland Advertiser, the two leading Republican papers in the State 
at that time. In 1858, Mr. Blaine was elected to the State Legisla- 
ture from the city of Augusta. He served four consecutive years in 
that body ; the last two, as Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
In 18<>2, Mr. Blaine was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress from 
the Third Congressional District of Maine, and has been three times 
re-elected by very large majorities. 

During Mr. Blaine's service in Congress, he has been a member of 
the Post-Office Committee, the Military Committee, the Committee 
on Appropriations, and the Committee on the Rules. He enjoys the 
reputation of being an exceedingly industrious committee man, and 



2 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE. 

lie takes at all times a very active and prominent part in the business 
and in the debates of the House. 

During the Thirty-eighth Congress, Mr. Blaine made a speech on 
the subject of the General Government assuming the "war debts of 
the loyal States," in the course of which he discussed at some length 
the ability of the nation to prosecute the war in which we were then 
so desperately engaged. This feature of Mr. Blaine's speech attracted 
great attention at the time, and it was made one of the Campaign 
Documents by the Union Republican party in the Presidential 
struggle of 1864. 

During the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. Blaine bore an active and 
conspicuous part in the legislation on measures of reconstruction. 
Early in January, I860, Mr. Blaine introduced a resolution, which 
was referred to the Reconstruction Committee, and was made the 
basis of that part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution 
regulating the matter of Congressional Representation. Before the 
introduction of Mr. Blaine's resolution, the tendency had been to 
base representation directly on the voting population ; but this was 
entirely changed ; and it appears that the first resolution, looking to 
the modification, was introduced by Mr. Blaine, and supported by 
a speech which, at the time, attracted much attention. 

During the second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. 
Blaine's participation in the Reconstruction Regulation was promi- 
nent and influential. The " Blaine Amendment," so well known in 
the public reports at the time, was moved by Mr. Blaine as a modifi- 
cation of Mr. Stevens' Military Bill. It was not adopted in pre- 
cisely the form originally introduced by Mr. Blaine, but the measure 
since known as the ''Howard Amendment," and sometimes as the 
" Sherman Amendment," as finally moved in the Senate, is substan- 
tially the same as originally proposed by Mr. Blaine, in the House. 

In the financial discussions of the Fortieth Congress, Mr. Blaine 
has been specially prominent. At the very opening of the Decem- 
ber session, L867, Mr. Blaine made an elaborate speech reviewing 
and opposing the Pendleton theory of the payment of our bonds 
200 



JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE. 3 

in greenbacks. At various times subsequently, be took prominent 
part in upholding the public credit and the national faith. In Mr. 
Blaine's first speech be closed with the following declarations, which 
coincided with singular accuracy with the conclusions since reached 
and enunciated by the Republican party in its National platform: 

"The remedy for our financial troubles, Mr. Chairman, will nol be 
found in a superabundance of depreciated paper currency. It lies in 

the opposite direction ; ami the s ier the nation finds Itself on a 

specie' basis, the sooner will the public Treasury be freed from embar- 
rassment, ami private business relieved from discouragement. In-trad. 
therefore, of entering upon a recklessand boundless issue of legal ten- 
ders, with their consequent depression, if not destruction of value, let 
ns set resolutely to work ami make those already in circulation equal 
to so many gold dollars. When that result shall he accomplished, we 
can proceed to pay our five-twenties either in coin or paper, tin- the 
one would he the equivalent of the other. But to proceed deliber 
ately on a scheme of depreciating our legal tenders, ami then forcing 
the holders of Government bonds to accept them in payment, would 
resemble in point of honor the policy of :i merchant who, with abun- 
dant resources and prosperous business, should devise a plan for throw- 
ing discredit on his own notes with the view of having them bought 
up at a discount ruinous to the holders and immensely profitable to 
his own knavish pocket. This comparison may faintly illustrate the 
wrongfulness of the policy, hut not its consummate folly ; for in the 
case of the Government, unlike the merchant, the stern necessity 
would recur of making good in the end, by the payment of hard coin, 
all the discount that might he gained by the temporary substitution 
of paper. 

"Discarding all such schemes as at once unworthy and unprofitable, 
let us direct our policy steadily, hut not rashly, toward the resump- 
tion of specie payment. And when we have attained that end — easily 
attainable at no distant day if the proper policy be pursued — we can 
all unite on some honorable plan for the redemption of the five-twenty 
bonds, and the issuing instead thereof a new series of bond- which 
207 



4 JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE. 

can be more favorably placed at a lower rate of interest. When we 
shall have reached the specie basis, the value of United States securi- 
ties will be so high in the money markets of the world that we can 
command our own terms. We can then call in our five-twenties ac- 
cording to the very letter and spirit of the bond, and adjust a new 
loan that will be eagerly sought for by capitalists, and will be free 
from those elements of discontent that in some measure surround the 
existing funded debt of the country." 

Mr. Blaine is an indefatigable worker, an accurate statistician, a. 
logical reasoner, and a fluent speaker. He possesses thorough knowl- 
edge of parliamentary law. His tact in discharging the duties of 
presiding officer has often been tested by his temporary occupancy 
df the Speaker's Chair. Whether in the Chair or on the floor of the 
House, he always maintains his self-possession, dignity, and good 
humor. A sprightly correspondent of the New York Tribune thus 
describes his appearance near the close of the Thirty-ninth Congress : 
" Mr. Blaine, whose amendment excites the opposition of the great 
Pennsylvanian, is metallic ; you cannot conceive how a shot should 
pierce him, for there seem no joints to his harness. He is a man 
who knows what the weather was yesterday morning in Dakota, 
what the Emperor's policy will be touching Mexico, on what day of 
the week the 16th of December proximo will fall, who is the chair- 
man of the school committee in Kennebunk, what is the best way 
of managing the National Debt, together with all the other interests 
of to-day, which anybody else would stagger under. How he does it, 
nobody knows. He is always in his seat. He must absorb details 
by assimilation at his finger ends. As I said, he is clear metal. His 
features are made in a mould ; his attitudes are those of a bronze 
figure; his voice clinks; and, as you know, he has ideas fixed as 
brass." 



CHARLES E. PHELPS. 



•''/^s^NK of the pioneers in the settlement of the "New Hampshire 
ll^Lp Grants," was Charles Phelps, who removed thither from 
$gjg\ Hadley, Mass., in 1704. He was adescendant in the fourth 
generation from William Phelps, who came from England to Massa- 
chusettsin L630. The former was by professiona lawyer, and held the 
office of Colonial Judge under appointment of the crown, and after- 
h ards by commission from the Governor of New Fork, whose claim of 
jurisdiction over the " Grants" he persistently supported, first against 
the pretensions of the State ofNew Hampshire, and afterwards against 
the independent State Government of Vermont. He and hi- son, 
Timothy Phelps, who had likewise a commission from New York as 
High Sheriff of Cumherland County, carried their opposition to the 
new Slate movement so far as to subject them hoth to proscription and 
confiscation of property by the Vermont authorities. John Phelps, 
son of Timothy, was a lawyer of reputation, and served at various 
times in the Council and State Senate. His son, by a first marriage, 
John AVolcott Phelps, graduated at West Point, served in the Flor- 
ida and Mexican wars as an officer of artillery, and was Colonel of 
the 1 st Vermont Volunteers in the civil war, and afterwards Briga- 
dier-General of Volunteers. His son, by a second wife, Mrs. Ahnira 
Hart Lincoln, sister of Mrs. Emma Willard, of Troy, N. Y., was 
Charles E. Phelps, born in Guilford, Vt, May 1, 1833, removed by 
his parents to Westchester, Pa., in 1837, and to Ellicott's Mills, 
Maryland, in 18-41. On the maternal side, Mr. Phelps is descended 
from Thomas Hooker, known as the "founder of Connecticut Col- 
ony," and from Samuel Hart, on i of the colonial champions of relig- 
14 209 



2 CHARLES E. PHELPS. 

ions liberty in opposition to the intolerant code known as the ''Blue 
Laws."' His mother, Mrs. A. II. Lincoln Phelps, is the author of a 
series of elementary treatises on botany, chemistry , natural philos- 
ophy and geology, which have been for many years widely used as 
school text-books, and is also known through her contributions to lit- 
erature in other departments, and as a practical and successful edu- 
cator, first in connection with the Troy Female Seminary, and later 
as the Principal of the Patapsco Institute in Maryland. 

After completing bis studies at St. Timothy's Kail. Md., Princeton 
College, X. .)., and at the Law School of Harvard University, Mr. 
Phelps commenced the practice of law in Baltimore, and in the 
Court of Appeals of Maryland, and was admitted to the bar of the 
U. S. Supreme Court, in 1859. In politics, be took no active part 
until the autumn of 1S60. 

Shortly before the latter date, the disorders which characterized 
the local rule of the Know-Nothing organization in the city of Balti- 
more, had compelled citizens of all parties to unite in an effort for 
municipal reform. A military organization, known as the "Mary- 
land Guard," of which Mr. Phelps was one of the originators, speed- 
ily gathered into its ranks several hundred young men, who volun- 
teered their services to sustain the measures of the State Legislature 
for the suppression of ruffian control of the ballot-box, by the estab- 
lishment of a police system analogous to that already introduced in 
New York, including a subdivision of the wards into election pre- 
cincts, and other features designed to secure the freedom and purity 
of election-. Of the regiment thus formed, Mr. Phelps was chosen 
one of the first captains, and afterwards major. 

The nominations of the "Reform Party" were made in disregard 
of the usual machinery of ward conventions, by a select committee of 
leading citizens, who assumed the responsibility of appealing to the 
people at a fair election for the support of their candidates. They 
were all elected by unprecedented majorities. Mr. Phelps was among 
those elected to the City Council, where he served as Chairman of 
the Committee on Police. 



CHARLES E. PHELPS. 

The se< tional difficulties shortly after culminated in rebellion and 
civil war, and on the 19th day of April, L861, a Massachusetts regi 
ment was mobbed while passing through the streets of Baltimore on 
its way to Washington. 

In obedience to orders, the Maryland Guard, which still retained 
its organization, was assembled at its armory, on the corner of Balti- 
more and Calvert streets surrounded by an excited multitude. It 
v.; at once apparent thai a large majority of its members were in 
sympathy with the prevalent spirit of hostility to the Federal troops. 
A very few. on the other band, including Mr. Phelps, still major of 
the regiment, vainly endeavored to stem the current. 

Great anxiety was manifested by all to know what orders would 
(■(inie from the civil authorities; ami when they at length were re- 
ceived, the orders were applauded by the crowd. Mr. Phelps de- 
clined to obey, and withdrew, forwarding immediately a formal res- 
ignation of his commission, assigning as his reason that ho could not 
conscientiously serve under such orders in view ofhis construct] 
the oath which he had taken to support the Constitution of the 
United States. 

In August, L862, he accepted the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Tih 
Regiment of Maryland Volunteers, a new regiment of Infantry 
raised' and commanded by Hon. Edwin II. Webster, then a member 
of tlie Eouse of Representatives. In November, L863, upon the 
resignation of Colonel Webster consequent upon Ids re-election to 
Congress, Colonel Phelps was commissioned and succeeded to the 
command. 

This regiment, with the exception of one company from Baltimore 
City, was recruited from the border counties of Maryland— Harford, 
Baltimore, Carroll. Frederick, and Washington. It was ordered in- 
to the iield on the li'th of September, 1862, and was organized with 
the 1st, 4th, and 8th Maryland Regiments into a separate brigade, 
under the command of General John R. Kenly. 

The Maryland Brigade was constantly in active service, at first on 

the Upper Potomac and in West Virginia, until after the battle of 

8ii 



4 CHARLES E. PHELPS. 

Gettysburg, when it was assigned to the First Corps of the 
Army of the Potomac, under Major-General Meade. On the re- 
organization of that army by Lieutenant-General Grant, the Mary- 
land Brigade was assigned to General Robinson's (2d) Division of Gen- 
eral Warren's (5th) Corps, under the command of Colonel ]ST. T. Du- 
sliane, of the 1st Maryland Volunteers, afterwards killed in action. 
On the second day of the "Wilderness" it was temporarily rein- 
forced by the 14th New York (Brooklyn) Regiment. In this action, 
Colonel Phelps had a horse killed under him while "rallying" his 
regiment dining a temporary confusion. At Spottsylvania Court 
House, on the 8th of May, 1864, he succeeded to the command of 
the brigade after the fall of Colonel Denison, severely wounded. 

The fall of General Robinson, also severely wounded, placed him 
in command of the division, or its remnant, while in the act of charg- 
ing a line of breastworks held by a division of Longstreet's corps. 
The assault was repulsed with heavy loss, and Colonel Phelps, while 
leading the column, had his horse shot, was wounded, and taken 
prisoner at the foot of the breastworks. Subsequently, on the recom- 
mendation of Major-General Warren, approved by General Grant, 
Colonel Phelps was commissioned Brevet-Brigadier-General for 
"gallant conduct" in this action. 

lie twice endeavored to effect bis escape, and at last succeeded in 
eluding his guard while being taken to the van, and lay concealed 
within the enemy's lines, under shell and musketry from the Union 
side, in expectation of an advance and re-capture. While in this 
situation, exhausted from the loss of blood, he was discovered and 
robbed by Rebel stragglers, who threatened his life, and might have 
taken it, but for the timely arrival of a Confederate Provost Guard. 
He was taken to their field-hospital and treated with attention, es- 
pecially by some who had been his comrades in the Maryland 
Guard. 

The day after being captured, while on the road to Richmond un- 
der a guard of the enemy's cavalry, with over three hundred Union 
prisoners, the convoy was overtaken by the advance of Sheridan's 



CHARLES E. PHELPS. 5 

cavalry, and a brief skirmish resulted in the rescue of the prisoners, 
and the capture or dispersion of their guard. Those prisoners who 
were not disabled, armed themselves from an ordnance train cap- 
tured at the same time, while those who were wounded suffered cx- 
cessively during the ten days which followed of rapid marching and 
frequent fighting. It was during this raid that the celebrated Rebel 
cavalry general. .1. E. I!. Stuart, was killed at the battle of Yellow 
Tavern. Here, as well as at the battles of Meadow Bridge, the De- 
fenses of Kichmond, etc., General Sheridan fought and maneuvered 
his cavalry with an intrepidity and skill which finally secured the 
Mire;— of hi- expedition in communicating at Haxall's Landing 
with the Army of the James. 

Colonel Phelps was in Baltimore, an invalid, when that city was 
in iminent danger of capture after the defeat of General Wallace at 
Monocacy, in July,186A. He volunteered his services to Major-Gen- 
eral Oi'd.to assbt in the defense of the city, and was assigned to his 
staff as additional Aid-de-camp until the invaders were repelled. 

The Third Congressional District of Maryland, consisting of the 
thirteen upper Ward- of Baltimore city, was represented in the 
Thirty-eighth Congress by Honorable Henry Winter Davis. His Re- 
construction Bill, reversing the policy announced by President Lin- 
coln in his Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, passed Con- 
gress in July, 1864, but was prevented by the President from beeom- 
ing a law. Mr. Davis, in connection with Senator Wade, issued a 
protest, denouncing President Lincoln and his policy. The Con- 
gressional District Convention of the Union party met shortly after 
in Baltimore, and at once nominated Colonel Phelps by acclamation 
as Mr. Davis 1 successor. He had been honorably discharged the ser- 
vice on account of disability from his wound, and accepted the nom- 
ination in a speech defining his position as "radical in war and con- 
servative in peace." 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress, he served on the Committees on Na- 
val Affairs and on the Militia. He opposed, by speech and vote, the 
Radical measures and policy of reconstruction, and advocated the im- 



g CHARLES E. PHELPS. 

mediate restoration of the Southern States without further condition 
than the abolition of slavery secured by Constitutional Amendment. 

He voted, however, under the shape which it finally assumed, for the 
additional Amendment known as Article XIY. 

In 1866, the Democratic party made no nominations in the Third 
District, but supported those of the Conservatives, by whom Mr. 
Phelps was nominated to the Fortieth Congress, and elected after a 
struggle of unprecedented fierceness. The circumstances that at- 
tended this election, including the trial and removal of the Police 
Commissioners by Governor Swann ; the arrest and imprisonment of 
their successors by order of Judge Bond ; the preparations for riot 
and bloodshed, and the threats of armed intervention by political 
organizations outside the State, pervaded the entire country with 
excitement and alarm. Mr. Phelps' election, though secured by a 
large majority, was formally contested bj-his Radical opponent, who, 
after causing a large mass of testimony to be taken, abandoned the 
contest with an apology. Mr. Phelps declined a re-nomination to 
the Forty-first Congress. 

In the Fortieth Congress, .Mr. Phelps was placed on the Committees 
on Appropriations, and on Expenditures in the War Department. 
His course on Reconstruction, Impeachment, and other political 
questions, identified him with the Democratic minority. 

In September, 1861, Mr. Phelps served upon a commission ap- 
pointed by Gov. Bradford to revise and codify the State Militia 
laws. He was an invited guest of the Hew England Society at 
their Anniversary Banquet in New York in December, 1S61, and 
responded to the sentiment, " Free Maryland."' 

He attended the Union " Soldiers' and Sailors' " Conservative Con- 
vention at Cleveland, Ohio, in September, 1SG6, as a delegate for 
Maryland. In February, 1*67, he declined an executive appoint- 
ment as a Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland. He is a 
Trustee of the Antietam National Cemetery, a member of the Mary- 
land Historical Society, and of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. 

214 





-2zJ&^ 






MARTIN WELKER 




fJiW n in ihis country have a history which illustrates 

\\fflT lu :l ii'" 1 ' 1 ' striking manner whal can be accomplished 1>\ 
energy, perseverance, and native talent, under the favoring 
influences of our free institutions, than that of Martin Welker. 

Ee was bora in Knox ('.unity. Ohio, April 25, 1819. His father, 
who was of German extraction, was an early settler in Ohio; and 
having but little means to educate a large family, the subject of this 
notice was obliged to rely almost exclusively upon his own resoi 
which did not consist in money, influence, or friends. His educa- 
tional advantages in youth were limited to a few years' winter in- 
struction in the log-cabin school-houses of the West. At an early 
period he developed an unusual taste for books and knowledge, and 
such were his habits of application that he very soon acquired a 
knowledge of the English branches taught in the schools at that time. 
At the age of thirteen he left his father's farm, and obtained a situa- 
tion as clerk in a store, where he remained five years, in the mean 
time occupying much of his leisure time in studying the higher 
branches of an English education. At the age of eighteen, having 
made considerable progress in a general education, he entered a 
lawyer's office, and commenced the study of a profession in which he 
has since become distinguished. 

While engaged in the study of the law, he occupied a portion of 
his time iu the study of the Latin language and general history. In 
the literary societies with which he was connected at the time, he 
soon became noted as an able debater and a vigorous and accom- 
plished writer. 



2 MARTIN WELKER. 

In the political campaign of 1840 he took a very active part for one 
so young. The editorial department of the paper published in the 
county in which he resided received many able contributions from his 
pen. 

At twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and rapidly rose to 
distinction as a jurist and advocate. After lie had been practicing ten 
years, he was nominated and elected District Judge of the Sixth 
District in Ohio, and served for a term of five years. At the close 
of his term he was re-nominated ; but on account of much political 
excitement at the time, he being a Whig in politics and the district 
largely Democratic, he lost a re-election, though running far ahead 
of his ticket. 

His judicial career was marked by great industry, legal knowledge 
of a high order, and the strictest impartiality in the administration 
of justice. By his urbanity of manner, his uprightness of conduct, 
his discriminating judgment, and his stern inflexible impartiality, he 
won the respect of his colleagues on the bench, the members of the 
bar, and his fellow citizens. 

Possessed of decided executive ability, and with a great know- 
ledge of men, and of the means of political advancement, Judge 
AVelker has at all times exerted a large influence in the political or- 
ganization with which he has acted. In a quiet and unobtrusive 
way, he has contributed much towards shaping the political destinies 
of his State. 

In politics he has been always a firm and unwavering friend « -t 
freedom. 

In the fall of 1857 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio, 
at the same time that Chief-Justice Chase was elected Governor. He 
served one term, and declined re-election. As President of the Sen- 
ate, cx-offic'w, he was distinguished as a model presiding officer ; his 
2 1 vat self-possession, urbanity of manner, legal knowledge, and ex- 
ecutive ability, admirably adapting him to a position of that kind. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion, he was appointed a Major on 
the Staff of General Cox, afterwards Governor of Ohio, and served 

210 



MARTIN WELKER. 3 

out the term for which the first soldiers were enlisted. He was then 
appointed aid-de-camp to the Governor, and assigned to the duties of 
Judge-Advocate-General of the State, and served until the expira- 
tion of the term of Governor Dennison. In this position, by his 
fine business qualifications, he contributed valuable service in calling 
nut and organizing the Ohio troops. 

In 1862, he was appointed Assistant- Adjutant-General of the State 
of Ohio, and was the State Superintendent of the draft in that year. 
"While on that duty he was nominated for Congress by the Republi 
can party of the Fourteenth Ohio District, but was defeated by a 
majority of thirty-six rotes. In L864, he was again nominated, and 
was elected by a large majority to the Thirty-ninth Congress. In 
L866, he was re-elected to the Fortieth Congress, serving on the Joint 
Committee on Retrenchment and on the Committee for the District 
of Columbia. In October, 1868, he was elected to the Forty-first 
Congress. 

As a representative in Congress, Judge Welker is a working 
member. When he speaks, he speak- briefly, to the point, and with 
much force and clearness. Thoroughly Radical in his political 
views, he has supported with ability all the leading measures of his 
party. 

When the great subject of Reconstruction was under consideration, 
on the 7th of February, 1SG6, Judge Welker made a speech in the 
Eouse of Representatives, from which tin 1 following extracts are 
taken : 

"' No graver or more responsible duties ever devolved on an Ameri- 
can Congress than are now upon us. This is the time and this the 
occasion to settle for all time in this country the great ideas and 
principles lying at the foundations of our noble structure of govern- 
ment. Let these foundations now be made strong, that in coming 
time the winds and storms of rebellion and revolution may heat in 
vain against the grand fabric erected thereon. Our fathers made 
this for a free government; one to which the persecuted and down- 
trodden of the world might fly and rind secure asylum and equal 



4 .MARTIN WELKER. 

rights. In the short period of less than a century, which is but a 
day in the life of a nation, the grand idea of our fathers was so far 
forgotten and departed from that we held four millions of God's 
creatures as the brutes of the field to be sold in the market, and their 
unrequited toil used to nurture and support a purse-proud and 
haughty oligarchy of oppressors in the land. 

"Let us now make it what our fathers intended it to be,- and secure 
to all their God-given rights, secure equal and exact justice to all 
men. To accomplish this we must not lie in a hurry with the 
work. In this fast age we are apt to desire the accomplishment 
of too much in a given time. Let these men so lately engaged in 
the rebellion have time to satisfy in that they are thoroughly cured 
of many of the heresies they have heretofore entertained. They can 
afford to wait after what they have done against the Government, 
after the great injury they have inflicted upon the country — the 
deluge of blood, the ravages of war they have caused all over our 
land, the widows and orphans they have made, the crippled and 
maimed soldiers they have scattered everywhere among us. There 
is much for them to do in the way of improvements and reforms in 
their localities before they are ready to assume all the responsibilities 
of government. As a matter of law, most of them have forfeited 
their lives ; and if the laws were enforced strictly against them, many 
of them would be hung for treason. They should remember that 
during these bloody four years they have caused the sacrifice of 
millions of precious lives and thousands of millions of treasure in 
this attempt to disconnect themselves from the Government, and 
establish for ever the infernal institution of slavery. 

"From the first commencement of this unholy war until their final 
surrender to overpowering force, these rebels never for a moment 
entertained any love for our Government or regret for what they 
had done. Now that they are conquered by our arms, they have no 
right to complain upon the demand of them of conditions and 
guarantees fen- the future. " :: ~ * * 

" It is said that the Union party is opposed to the re-union of the 



MARTIN WELKER. 5 

States, and is trying to prevent its accomplishment. I deny any 
such purpose. The party that for four years carried on this war for 
the Union, that supported the administration in the days of dark- 
ness ami gloom against traitors at home as well as in the field, that 

strengthened its hands and sustained it- policy, will not desert the 
cause qow. This party, 60 tar a- I know, does not desire to keep 
the Representatives of these States lately in rebellion out of Con- 
gress one moment longer than is necessary for the public good. But 
the great questions settled by the war, the great principles of eternal 
justice, must not In' sacrificed or ignored by any art of this Onion 
party. We all desire, 1 hope, the accomplishment of union and har- 

ly with all the States represented on our common flag, limit 

must he d 3 so that we .-hall have no more rebellions and uo more 

controversies to embitter our relation-, growing out of the causes 
that led to the late rebellion. These should he settled now and tin- 
ever. When that is accomplished, a grand and glorious future 
awaits us. Then will he realized the grand purpose of our fathers 
in the creation of this Government. With the finest soil, the most 
beautiful rivers and lakes, the most enterprising and intelligent popu- 
lation, we will then take our stand proudly and gloriously among the 
nations of the world, the model Republic, with universal intelligence, 
freed. nn. and equality, as the great lights to guide us in our advance- 
ment in the pathway of civilization. 

"When the Impeachment of the President was first proposed, it was 
not favored by Judge Welter. His reasons for opposing the pro- 
ceeding, and subsequently changing his views of duty, were forcibly 
presented in a brief and effective speech in the House of Represen- 
tatives, .February 24. 1S6S : 

" When the Report of the Judiciary Committee was before the 
1 1 01 1 -e,'' said he, "I voted with a majority of Republican members 
against Impeachment. The charges then made against the President 
covered a wide field, and involved so many different questions growing 
out of the results of the war, that I feared the delay that would attend 
a trial in the Senate, ami its effects upon the great public interests of 



6 MARTIN WELKER. 

the country. There were so many subjects of legislation demanding 
the attention of Congress, that I felt then it was best for the country 
to endure as long as possible the bad conduct of the President, rather 
than resort to this extreme measure. But this forbearance on behalf 
of those who then voted against the proposition, was regarded as a 
license for farther assumptions of power. The charges now make a 
plain and simple issue, easily proven, and requiring but short time 
for trial, and involve the violation of the Constitution and the laws, 
in but a few particular acts committed since the former proceedings 
were terminated. * * * The people of this country will not be 
confined to our charges and specifications against the President. They 
will go behind these charges, and in their discussions canvass his 
whole course of conduct. They will think of his desertion of the 
great party that elected him; of his treachery in transferring the 
influence of his high office to those who had been the enemies of the 
country; of his crime in raising up rebel resistance to acts of Con- 
gress made to establish the peace of the country and protect the weak 
and down-trodden; of the great obstructions he has placed in the 
way of the restoration of the rebel States; and of the wide-spread of 
corruption under his administration, threatening the whole revenues 
of the country with destruction. It is said that this impeachment 
proceeding is a war of Congress upon the President. It is, in truth, 
the result of a war of the President upon the rights of the people— a 
struggle between grasping and domineering power on the one side, 
and a bold and daring assertion of the great prerogatives of the 
people's representatives on the other. In all such contests the people 
will prevail, and the executive power be confined within the limits of 
the Constitution and the law. No free government was ever over- 
thrown by curtailing the power of the executive. The danger lies 
in the other extreme, that of its increase and disregard of the voice 
of the people in the abridgement of their rights." 

220 




y,,. 



< / . < 




THOMAS ( ORXELL. 



^^ROM a careful investigation of public and private records, 
recently made by Eon. Ezra Cornell, it appears that the 
numerous families thai hear the uame of < okn] m. have de- 
scended from different parental stocks which emigrated from Europe 
in the early part of the seventeenth century. 

The subject of this sketch is descended from that particular family 
to which, in July, 164:6, Mr. Wm. Kieft, then " Director General and 
Council fur the Prince of Orange," delivered a grant of land in West- 
chester County, at a point mi the East River afterwards known as 
"Cornell's Meek." 

Thomas Cornell was born at White Plains. Westchester County, 
New York,January 23, 1*14. Having enjoyed the limited advantage 
of a common school-education, he was firstemployed a- a clerk in the 
city of Xew York. In 1*4:! he removed to Ulster County, where, 
with a very small capital, he began on his own account the forward- 
ing business between Eddyville and Xew York. Six years later he 
encased in the new and growing traffic which followed the comple- 
tion of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, a traffic which under his 
skillful management made rapid progress, till at length it has attained 
the mammoth proportions which we witness to-day. 

With the sudden increase in the product- of labor which naturally 
sought a market in the metropolis, there arose the necessity of increas- 
ed facilities for the transportation of freight and passengers on the 
waters of the Hudson, and to this latter work, in 1848, Mr. Cornell 
began to devote his energies. In this enterprise his untiring indus- 
try and careful business management have for twenty year.- been at- 



2 THOMAS CORNELL. 

tended with uniform and signal success, so that he is to-day the sole 
proprietor of twenty-three steamboats, some of them first-class in size, 
cost, and sj>eed, and constituting one of the largest and most valuable 
steam fleets in the country. 

It is but natural that the capacity, energy, and industry which at- 
tained such results, should have opened up to them still other depart- 
ments of successful enterprise. Hence we find Mr. Cornell becoming 
in turn the founder and president of the First National Bank of 
Rondout, of the Eondout Savings Bank, the originator and presi- 
dent of the Rondout and Oswego Railroad, now in process of con- 
struction, and also of the Horse Railroad which connects Rondout 
with Kingston, all of which positions he still holds. He seems gifted 
witli that rare and peculiar adaptation to business which almost in- 
stantly and instinctively discovers the elements of success or failure 
in every business transaction, with that self-reliance and energy which 
prompt him to go forward directly ami confidently to the object be- 
fore him, and witli that keen, penetrating, and comprehensive knowl- 
edge of human nature which is so essential in the choice of men to 
carry out his plans. 

As a citizen he is noted for bis continued efforts to secure the gen- 
eral good of the community in which he resides. He is always ready 
to aid in any measures which tend to augment its wealth or add to 
its attractiveness. His gifts for the building of houses of worship 
and the support of the Gospel among the various denominations, are 
frequent and liberal. 

Though never a politician, cither by choice or inclination, Mr. Cor- 
nell has always been known for his zealous and faithful adherence to 
the principles of the Republican party. Upon the leading questions 
of political economy, lie has thought deeply, and clearly compre- 
hends the fundamental principles upon which our Republic rests, as 
well as the elements which are best fitted to secure the stability and 
permanence of its institutions; while his appreciation of the bless- 
ings which flow from a well-ordere 1 government is ardent and strong. 

A man of the people, he is in the closest sympathy with them, irre- 

232 






THOMAS CORNELL. 3 

speetive of nationality, creed, or complexion. His friends, therefore, 
have long regarded Mm as endowed in a peculiar manner with the 
more solid and sterling qualities of the efficient legislator, but not 
till recently have they been able to prevail upon him to accept any 
public trust at their hands. Ilis consent, when finally obtained, was 
given with the utmost reluctance and at great personal sacrifice. 
In his district, which has been uniformly and largely Democratic, he 
was elected to the Fortieth Congress by a handsome majority. Hi- 
public service has more than met the expectation of his friends. He 
has discharged the duties of member of the Committee on Educa- 
tion and also of that on Roads and Canal- ; his faithful and efficient 
guardianship of the interests of his constituents securing for him 
the increased confidence and esteem oi both parties. 

The source of Mr. Cornell's -rent popularity is to be found, not, as 
is too often the ea-e, in the shrewd and skillful maneuvers of the 
mere politician, but rather in the general public conviction of the pu- 
rity of hi- moral and Christian character, hi- superior business quali- 
fications, his great tact in the selection of right men and measures, 
his stern devotion to the principles of truth and justice, and possibly 
more than all, in his unbounded liberality. This la-t i- of all others 
his predominant characteristic. Upon needy and meritorious public 
institutions his gifts have been bestowed, tens of thousands of dol- 
lars at a time, and in such rapid succession a- to astonish even In- 
most intimate friends. These free-will offerings, in many instance- 
unsolicited, so far from being restricted to his own individual rela" 
tionships or preferences, have been extended to the widest range of 
Christian and philanthropic benevolence. In giving, however, as 
in everything else, he is never reckless or indiscriminate, but shrewd 
and well advised, always taking into account the worthiness of the 
object, and the amount of good which is likely to be attained. His 
princely liberality was particularly manifest during the recent Re- 
bellion, as well in raising and sending men to the field, as in pro- 
viding tor the maintenance of their families during their absence. 
Many a soldier's taxes were paid while he was serving his country, 



•i THOMAS CORNELL. 

and many a soldier's widow and children were relieved by his ready 
hands. 

Mr. Cornell's method of thinking is peculiar to himself. He gen- 
eralizes with great rapidity, often deciding upon the merits of the 
most intricate proposition the instant it is fairly stated, but never 
without taking into account its minutest details. Hence the prompt- 
ness and punctuality with which he dispatches business, and the num- 
ber and magnitude of his business transactions. He is emphatically 
a man of deeds, not words ; yet when the occasion requires, he speaks 
with much effectiveness, is self-possessed, and has a ready command 
of language. There is, moreover, a subdued earnestness in his man- 
ner, and a pathos in the tones of his voice, which never fail to at- 
tract attention and produce a favorable impression. In manners 
he is quiet, modest, and even retiring, never obtruding his opinion 
where it is not desired, but easy, graceful, and attractive in conver- 
sation. In his external demeanor there is not, to the ordinary ob- 
server, the slightest indication of his high position or great success ; 
and yet in many respects, Thomas Cornell is one of the most re- 
markable men in the Fortieth Congress. 

234 




/jh^) l ^Clc 






GEOEGE W. JULIAN. 



&H|™i~|HE Julian family is of French origin. The first of the 
t'ife name came to America sometime in the last century, and 
■' M^ settled on the eastern sin ire of Maryland. Their descend- 
ants, however, soon scattered in various directions. < )ne of the family is 
mentioned in Irving's " Life of Washington," as living near Winchester, 
Virginia, soon after Braddock's defeat. The next notice we have of the 
family, is in North Carolina, where Isaac Julian, the father of the 
suhject of tliis sketch, was born and reared among the Quakers, who 
gave that State a character for loyalty and anti-slavery sentiment, 
found nowhere else in the South. Early in the present century, he 
removed to Indiana, where he was one of the earliest of the pioneer 
settlers. He was a man of sound judgment and practical ability. 
He took a part of some prominence in the affairs of the young 
State, and was at one time a member of the State Legislature. 

His son, George W. Julian, was born near Centreville, Indiana, May 
5, 1817, in a log house, which is still standing in a good state of pres- 
ervation. When George was six years old, his father died, leaving to 
the excellent mother and six children an inheritance of poverty and 
hardship. 

George was a boy of very industrious habits, exhibiting at an early 
age those sterling qualities of character which have since distinguished 
him. He was particularly remarkable for his close application to 
study, and his unconquerable resolution. When not engaged in labor 
necessary for the support of himself and other members of the fam- 
ily, be was constantly poring over books, which he had managed to 
borrow from kind neighbors. His principal opportunities of study 



2 GEORGE W. JULIAN. 

were by fire-light, and after the other members of the family had re- 
tired to rest. Thus he soon prepared himself for teaching ; and long 
before he came of age, he was engaged during the winter months 
at the head of a district school. 

In the twenty-second year of his age, and while engaged in teach- 
ing in Illinois, he commenced, without a preceptor, the study of law ; 
and so diligent and successful was he in his law studies, that, in the 
following year (1840), he was admitted to the bar. He began the 
practice of his profession in Greenfield, Indiana ; and after two years 
he returned to Centreville, where, with little interruption, he contin- 
ued the practice of law for more than twenty years. 

In 1845, Mr. Julian was elected to the State legislature, to repre- 
sent the county of "Wayne. He took a prominent part in advo- 
cating the abolition of capital punishment, and in support of what 
was then known as the " Butler Bill," by the passage of which one- 
half of the State debt was cancelled, and the State probably saved 
from repudiation. 

Mr. Julian, though a strong Whig, yet possessed that fearless and 
independent spirit which could rise above party ties whenever its 
principles were likely to be perverted by designing leaders. No 
party could ever be made strong enough to hold him in its ranks for 
a moment after he believed it had once deserted the great principles 
of justice and humanity. It was doubtless this stern conviction of 
light that ultimately separated him from the "Whig party. From 
his earliest connection with the politics of the country, he abhorred 
slavery, and regarded with contempt those who would cringe to its 
power. For years he seems to have foreseen the terrible crisis 
through which the country has recently passed, and warned the peo- 
ple to resist the encroachments of the slave power, as the only 
means of averting a great national calamity. 

Actuated by such sentiments, Mr. Julian, in 1848, aided in the 
nomination of Yan Buren and Adams, the Free-Soil candidates for 
President and Vice-President. He returned from the Buifalo Con- 
vention overflowing with enthusiasm in the cause of freedom. He was 

236 



GEORGE W". JULIAN". 

appointed elector for his District for Van Huron and Adams, and en- 
gaged with heart and strength in the unequal contest. In this new 
and great career on which he had entered, he endured the disruption 
of social tics, and received the hisses and execrations, the abuse and 
calumnies of many of his former political associates, but courageously 
confronted his ablest opponents, and lashed the adversaries of free- 
dom until they cowered before him, and confessed the strength of his 
canse. All parties were astonished at his power and success, which 
was so great that in 1849 he was elected to Congress over the late 
lion. Samuel "W. Parker, a prominent "Whig politician, and one of 
the besl speakers of the Wot. 

Though elected principally by Democratic rotes, Mr. Julian faith- 
fully sustained, against all temptations, and during his entire term in 
Congress, the principles upon which he was elected. His speeche 
on the slavery question, and his uncompromising course in opposition 
to that system, tended still further to widen the breach between him 
and his former associates. He was one of the father- of the lion- 
stead Law. Grace Greenwood thus wrote of his speech on the sub- 
ject of the public lands delivered during his first term in Congress: 
"This was a strong, fearless, and eloquent expression of a liberty- 
loving and philanthropic spirit. It is lying before me now, and I 
have just been reading some of its finesl passages; and, brief and 
unstudied a- it is, it does not seem to me a speech for one day, or for 
one Congressional session. It seems moved with the strength oi a 
great purpose, veined with a vital truth, a moral life-blood beating 
through it warm and generous. It is something that must live and 
work yet many days." 

In 1851, Mr. Julian was again a candidate for Congress in opposi- 
tion to Mr. Parker, but was this time defeated. In 1852, he was by 
the Free-Soil Convention at Pittsburg, placed upon the ticket with 
Hon. John P. Hale, as candidate for Vice-President. This served to 
increase his reputation among the more liberal thinkers of the coun- 
try, and made his name less than ever the property of his own State. 
185!: was the year of KnowJSTothingism— a new and strange order. 



4 GEORGE W. JULIAN. 

which foiled not to find in Mr. Julian a most formidable and uncompro- 
mising opponent. He continued to wage an incessant warfare against 
it, until it ceased to exist as an organization. His anti-Know-Noth- 
ing speech, delivered at Indianapolis in 1855, is esteemed by many as 
the ablest argument which this remarkable movement called forth. 

In February, 1856, occurred at Pittsburg the great National Con- 
vention of all who were opposed to the Democratic party. It was at 
this convention that measures were taken for the organization of the 
National Republican party. Of this important convention, Mr. Ju- 
lian was one of the Vice-Presidents, and Chairman of the Committee 
on Organization, through whose report of a plan of action the party 
first took life. 

In 1S60, Mr. Julian received the Republican nomination for Con- 
gress in the Fifth District of Indiana, and in spite of much and va- 
ried ojiposition, was elected by an overwhelming majority. He has 
since been four times re-elected, in the last instance largely by a 
new constituency, the State having recently been re-districted for 
Congressional purposes. 

At the organization of the Thirty-seventh Congress, Mr. Julian 
was placed upon the Committee on Public Lands, and also on the 
important Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. On the 
election of Mr. Colfax as Speaker of the Thirty-eighth Congress, he 
appointed Mr. Julian Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands. 
He was continued on the Committee on the Conduct of the War so 
long as this committee continued to exist. 

Mr. Julian has been an exceedingly active and efficient member of 
the National Legislature. Among the important measures introduced 
by him during his ten years' service in Congress, may be men- 
tioned the bill repealing the Fugitive Slave law of 1850 and 1793 ; a 
bill abolishing the coast-wise slave trade ; a bill providing homesteads 
for soldiers and seamen on the forfeited lands of rebels ; a bill provid- 
ing for the sale of the mineral lands of the Government ; a bill fixing 
eight hours as a day's work for all Government employees (laborers 
and mechanics) ; a bill extending the homestead law over the public 



GEORGE W. JULIAN. 5 

lands of the Southern States, in restricted allotments to white and col- 
ored, witha prohibition of further sale.-; in that region ; a bill equaliz- 
ing bounties among our soldiers and sailors on the basis of eight and 
one-third dollars per month in lieu of bounties in land; a bill prevent- 
ing the further issue of Agricultural College scrip to the rebellious 
Slates ; a bill establishing the right of suffrage in the Districl of < !ol- 
umliia, without regard to race or color; a bill establishing the same 
principle in all the Territories of the United States, being the first 
introduced in either House on the subject ; the bill declaring forfeited 
thi' lands granted to Southern railroads in L856 ; a bill making the 
public domain free to honorably discharged soldiers and seamen; ami 
a bill withdrawing the public lands from further sale except under 
the pre-emption and homestead laws. 

W. H. Goddard, Esq., in a brief sketch of the life and services of 
Mr. Julian, published two years ago, thus enumerates his most im- 
portant speeches: 

" The speeches of Mr. Julian during the war, both in Congress and 
before the people, have been among the very ablest of the crisis. That 
delivered in the House on the 14th day of January, L862, Oil the 
'Cause and Cure of our National Troubles,* is one of which his 
friends may well lie proud, and to day reads like a prophecy fulfilled. 
Iiis speech on 'Confiscation and Liberation,' delivered in May fol- 
lowing, is similar in character. That delivered in February. 1863, on 
the 'Mistakes of the Past ; the duty of the Present,' is a merciless 
review of ' Democratic Policy,' as seen in the facts and figures which 
had been supplied by the investigations of the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War. In the winter of 1863-4 he delivered a very 
thorough and forcible speech on his bill providing homesteads for sol- 
diers on the lands of rebels, which was followed by another on the 
same subject, involving a controversy with Mr. Mallory, of Kentucky, 
who met with a most humiliating discomfiture. During the session 
of 1864-5, Mr. Julian delivered an able speech on the sale of mineral 
lands, and another on ' Radicalism and Conservatism,' closing with 

a handsome and eloquent tribute to the anti-slavery pioneers. His 

229 



6 GEORGE W. JULIAN. 

speech on 'Reconstruction ami Suffrage,' delivered last fall before the 
Legislature of Indiana, is reckoned among the most thorough and 
effective he has vet made ; whilst his speeches at the present session 
of the Thirty-ninth Congress on ' Suffrage in the District of Columbia,' 
and on ' Amending the Constitution,' add still further to his reputation 
as a thinker, and a perfectly independent man who knows how to say 
what he thinks. All his speeches breathe the spirit of freedom, and 
have the merit of careful thought, methodical arrangement, and a re- 
markably clear and forcible diction." 

In addition to the speeches enumerated above, should be named 
those he has since delivered on " Radicalism, the Nation's Hope," 
'* The Punishment of Rebel Leaders," " Regeneration before Recon- 
struction," " Forfeiture of the Southern Land Grants," " The True 
Policy of Land Bounties," and finally his speech of March 6, 186S, 
on " Our Land Policy, its Evils and their Remedy." The latter, made 
in support of his great measure now pending, forbidding the further 
sale of our public lands except to actual settlers, is perhaps the ablest 
and most thoroughly practical of all his speeches. 

In 1860, Mr. Julian lost his excellent wife, and was soon after still 
further bereaved by the death of two promising sons. In December, 
1863, he was married to Miss Laura Giddings, the talented and ac- 
complished daughter of the late Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio. 
Mr. Julian is tall in stature, possessing much physical as well as 
intellectual vigor. His expansive brow indicates clearness and 
strength of thought. His face bespeaks a man of firmness, con- 
scientiousness, and benevolence. While deficient in many of the 
arts by which the politician wins popularity, he possesses the superior 
ability by which the statesman earns enduring fame. 
230 





Jbs 







WILLIAM D. KELLKY. 




HE subject of this sketch, William Darrah Kelley, was 
born in Philadelphia, April 12, 1814. lli> grand! 
Major John Kelley, was an officer of the Revolutionary 
war. His father followed the business of.watchmaker and jeweler in 
Philadelphia. During the financial troubles accompanying the close 
of thr war of 1812, Mr. Kelley fell into pecuniary difficulties; his 
business was ruined, and he was stripped of all his possessions. He 
soon afterwards died, leaving his family in very straitened circum- 
stances, when William, who was the youngest, was but two yearsold. 

Hi- mother, thus left with a dependent family of three daughters 
and a son, succeeded in maintaining herself and her children respect- 
ably. William was sent to a neighboring school until eleven years 
of age, when he left it finally with only the rudiments of an ordinary 
English education, while any further progressive study must depend 
upon his own exertions. He served fur some time as an errand boy 
in a In ink store, and afterwards entered the office of the Pennsylvania 
Enquirer as a proof-reader, and remained there until his fourteenth 
vear. lie then apprenticed himself to a jeweler until twenty years 
of age — leaving his mother's roof and taking up his residence with 
his employer, where he continued during the term of his apprentice- 
ship. 

Young Kelley keenbj realized the deficiencies of his early educa- 
tion, and applied himself diligently to remedy it by reading. Books, 
however, being difficult of access, he united with a number of his 
companions to found the " Youth's Library," afterwards called the 
'•Pennsylvania Literary Institute." A library of about two thou and 



WILLIAM D. KELLEY 



volumes was soon accumulated, and the association sustained for 
several years an annual course of lectures. The original members 
and officers were nearly all apprentice boys, and the influence thus 
exerted upon them was of a highly salutary character. The society 
continued to exist until its early members had become scattered, or 
too deeply involved in active business to give it their attention as 
formerly. 

Young Kelley's indenture expired in the spring of 1S34 — the period 
of pecuniary embarrassment which followed the struggle between the 
United States Bank and the Government. In Philadelphia, the seat 
of the operation of the bank, the consequent excitement and panic 
were intense, and with the many painful scenes that transpired around 
him, Mr. Kelley became familiar. Nurtured from childhood in the 
Democratic faith, and loving its course with all the intensity of an 
ardent and impulsive nature, he could not but be excited to a strong 
pn .test and resistance. lie labored earnestly to strengthen the spirits 
of his Democratic associates against what he considered the tyranny 
of those who favored the interests of the bank, and it is thought that 
much of his intense energy of purpose and power of vehement decla- 
mation were developed by these exciting times. 

Tims, when William Kelley attained his- freedom, it was a season 
of extreme depression, which all the forms of fancy business like that 
which he had spent his youth in learning, were the first to feel and 
the last from which to recover. Nor had his course been such as to 
secure the favor of such employers as were of opposite politics. Hence, 
tailing to obtain employment at his trade in Philadelphia, he pro- 
ceeded to Boston, where, for four years, he pursued his calling with 
unremitted industry. His peculiar branch of the trade was enamel- 
ing, in which he seems to have excelled, and which he is said to have 
pursued with the enthusiasm of an artist as well as the skill of a cun- 
ning workman. 

During liT- residence in Boston, Mr. Kelley was not careless of 
mental improvement, although he pursued his business with steady 
industry. He read perseveringly, and gathered around him such a 






WILLIAM D. KELLEY 3 

choice collection of standard literature as is seldom seen in the humble 
apartment of a mechanic. His reading was well selected, while an 
unusually retentive memory enabled him to profit by it in a greater 
degree than most others. Nor did his political fervor abate. His 
enthusiastic attachment to the great distinctive principles of Demo- 
cracy never grew cold for a moment. Much of his leisure time was 
devoted to political and historical reading ami the details of party 
organization. It was now that his peculiar talent as a public speaker 
was first recognized. His style may have been crude and juvenile, 
but was fresh, vigorous, and impetuous; and he soon became a favor- 
ite witli the masses of the party. In the Democratic paper- of that 
day his name occurs frequently in association with those <>t' Bancroft, 
Brownson, and A. II. Everett. lie also commenced the cultivation 
of a written style, with enviable success; and, even while in the 
workshop, his name appears in mere than one programme of lectures 
with those of Channing and Emerson. 

The following testimonial of Mr. Kelley, while in Boston, from the 
pen of the assistant editor of Burritfs Christian Citizen, will be in 
place here : 

•■ It was our good fortune, when an apprentice-boy in Boston, to 
enjoy the intimate companionship of this now eminent jurist and 
philanthropist, who was then a journeyman mechanic, devoting his 
days to hard manual toil, ami his nights to the acquisition of knowl- 
edge. We were made a wiser and a better boy through the influence 
of his instruction and example; and -cores of young men, who were 
then our companions, but who are now scattered all over the country, 
from Maine to Oregon, can say the same. And we rejoice, as no 
doubt they do, that our early friend now occupies a position which 
enables him to impress the influence of his noble nature upon a whole 
community, ami carry forward his plans for the benefit of his fellow- 
men, with the co-operation of the wise and good, in the common- 
wealth which shows its appreciation of Ids worth by elevating him to 
one of its most important and responsible trusts." 

Being persuaded by his numeroui fricndi as well as by Ids own 



4 WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 

inclination, Mr. Keller finally resolved to abandon his calling for the 
Study of the law, and with that view returned to Philadelphia. Here 
he pursued his studies with characteristic industry and perseverance, 
and was admitted to the bar in the spring, of 1841. Entering upon 
the practice of his profession, he at once acquired a considerable busi- 
ness. Meanwhile, his political labors, and his connection with nu- 
merous literary and philanthropic associations, gave him a very ex- 
tensive acquaintance. Very few men, certainly, were acquainted 
with so many of his fellow-citizens, while all knew him in some con 
nection creditable to himself and calculated to inspire confidence in 
his manliness, integrity, and intelligence. 

Even before his admission to the bar, Mr. Kelley took a warm and 
active part in the politics of his native State. Popular as a speaker, 
his influence grew stronger every day. Possessing unusual gifts as ;i 
popular orator, the warmth and energy of his speeches roused and 
attracted his auditors, so that his appearance on the stand was always 
loudly called for and enthusiastically cheered. He enjoyed, in fact, 
at tlii— period, a popularity and influence seldom attained by one of 
his age; and when one of the newspapers of the day. in referring to 
his efforts to allay the public excitement consequent upon the suspen- 
sion of specie payments in 1^4i'. >poke of him as the "tribune of the 
people," certainly no other man in Philadelphia deserved the compli- 
ment as Well. 

Mr. Kelley rendered efficient aid in the canvass which resulted in 
the election of Mr. Polk to the presidency; also in the gubernatorial 
contest which preceded in Pennsylvania. During this campaign lie 
traversed the State in company with Mr. Shunk, the Democratic can- 
didate for Governor, addressing meetings in various places. Where 
ever he was heard, his practical good sense, his genuine republican- 
ism, and his enthusiasm in the cause for which he was battling, were 
thought to have excited a decided influence upon the ensuing elec- 
tion, which made Mr. Shunk Governor of the State. 

In 1845, Mr. Kelley was deputed, in conjunction with an associate, 
to conduct the prosecutions in the courts of the city and county of 
CM 



WILLIAM D. KELLEY 



Philadelphia. To a young lawyer, hardly initiated into practice, this 
was a commission of special honor as well as responsibility; nor was 
the latter diminished by the important State trials arising from the 
riots of 1845. On the part of Mr. Kelley, as well as his colleague, 
these prosecutions were conducted with skill, fearlessm ss, and energy, 
while it is thought to be nol too much to saj that the firm and cap- 
able administration of justice to which Mr. Kelley's exertions so much 
contributed, averted a threatened civil war. 

Ai ig the lasl acts of Governor Shunk's administration was the 

appointment of Mr. Ivellej to a -eat on the bench of the Court of 
Comi i Pleas of Philadelphia. In the important trust thus im- 
posed upon him, he united to the industry and capacity that always 
characterized him a sound appreciation of the moral wants of the 
community, and an untiring energy and boldness in the exercise of 
his judicial function-. His decisions were said to be stamped not 
only by clearness of perception and vigor of reasoning, but bj a 
o-eneral and profound acquaintance with the literature of his pro- 
fession, lor which even his friends had scarcely given him credit. 

Judge Kelley's elevation to the bench, while it removed him, of 
course, from participation in party politic-, did not, however, deprive 
him of his interest in public movements of a general character. In 
whatever concerned the elevation of the laboring community and the 
development of the rich resources of hi> native State, his interest re- 
mained deep and abiding. Eis eloquent and successful appeals in 
behalf of the Central Pennsylvania Railroad, and his exertions for the 
establishment of public night-schools in Philadelphia, for those whose 
daily employment would have otherwise cut them off from all means 
of instruction — these and other nobler effort- during his judgeship are 
not forgotten. 

As a writer, Judge Kelley has evinced no mean abilities, and is 
capable of wielding the eloquence of the pen as well as that of the 
lips. His style is clear, terse, and compressed, and his thoughts 
eminently rational and practical. 

For our sketch of Judge Kelley, a< thus far presented, we are in- 



(; WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 

debted substantially to an article in the "United States Magazine and 
Democratic Review " for June, 1851, from the pen of Dr. Henry S. 
Patterson. Not far from the time when this article appeared, Judge 
Keller united in a decision in a contested election case by which a 
Democrat, who had secured a fraudulent return of votes, was ousted 
from a distriet-attorneysbip, and the "Whig candidate was placed in 
the office to which he had been elected. The judiciary of Pennsyl- 
vania having become elective, and the Democratic Nominating Con- 
vention refusing his name for re-nomination, the people took him up 
spontaneously, and re-elected him to the bench by a majority of about 
10,000. He continued, however, to vote the Democratic ticket until 
that party repealed the Missouri Compromise. 

In 1850 Judge Kelley resigned his judgeship and accepted a Re- 
publican nomination for Congress. He made a vigorous and able 
canvass, but failed of an election. He then resumed the practice of 
his profession, and with distinguished success. In 1860 he was a 
member of the ( Ihicago Convention, and was the Pennsylvania mem- 
ber of the Committee of one from each State to inform Mr. Line, la 
of his nomination. In October ensuing he was elected a Represen- 
tative to Congress, which office, by successive elections, he has held 
to the present time. 

In the spring of 1SG7 Mr. Kelley made a tour in the South, and 
delivered addresses in the principal cities. While speaking to a large 
assemblage in Mobile. Alabama, he was assailed by a mob, and nar- 
rowly escaped with his life. 

As a public speaker Judge Kelley has singular ability. His voice 
is remarkable for its deep, full, sonorous tone ; his manner is deliber- 
ate and graceful, and his enunciation most distinct. He speaks as 
one deeply impressed with the truth and importance of what he says. 
and never fails to command profound attention. 
236 



SIIKITY M. (TLLOM. 



'. ^IIKI.r.V M. (TLLOM was bora in Wayne County, Ken- 
;= ^j) tnckv. November 22, 1829. His father moved from Ken- 
tucky with his family when the Bubjecl of this sketch was 
scarcely a year old, and settled in Tazewell County, Illinois, where 
he now resides. 

5Toung Cullom remained with his father until nineteen years of 
age, working upon the farm in summer, and attending a neighboring 
school in the winter. 1L\ however, taught school about ten months 
of the time above named. At the age of nineteen, he left home and 
entered school at Mi. Morris University, but was obliged to leave at 
the close of the second year, on account of his health. 

Having returned home, lie remained there until his health was re- 
stored, when he entered the office of Messrs. Stewart & Edwards, 
at Springfield, 111., and commenced the study of law. He was in 
a short time admitted to practice, and was immediately eleeted City 
Attorney, which office he held during one year. 

The presidential campaign of 1856 thou came on, and Mr. Cullom 
was placed upon the electoral ticket for Fillmore. He was also nom- 
inated for the State legislature by the Fillmore and Fremont parties 
uniting together, and was elected. At the meeting of the legislature, 
he was voted for by the Fillmore men for Speaker of the House. In 
1860 he was again elected to the legislature from Sangamon County, 
and this time was chosen Speaker. 

In 180-2, Mr. Cullom was appointed by President Lincoln on a 
commission with Gov. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, and Charles A. 
Dana— afterward Assistant Secretary of War— to proceed to Cairo, 






2 SHELBY M. CULLOM. 

Illinois, for the purpose of examining into the accounts and transac- 
tions of quartermasters and commissary officers, and pass upon 
claims allowed by them against the Government. lie was afterward 
a candidate for the State Senate, and for a seat in the Constitutional 
Convention, in a Democratic District, and was defeated. 

In IS 64, Mr. Cullom was nominated by the Union party of his 
District for Congress ; and although the District, at the last previous 
election, had been Democratic by about fifteen hundred majority, yei 
he was elected by a majority of seventeen hundred— thus defeating 
the Hon. John T. Stewart, with whom he had read law. 

Thefirst speech made by Mr. Cullom in Congress, was in answer 
to Mr. Harding, of Kentucky ; who had made a bitter speech against 
the I nion party of the country, and among other things, had said 
that " it was time a little posting was done." We give here an ex- 
tract or two from Mr. Cullom's response: 

"But, sir, as the gentleman proclaimed to this House and the 
country that it was time a little posting was done, I thought with 
him ; and let me tell the gentleman and liis political friends that the 
great Union party which has stood by the nation's flag and borne it 
aloft amid the fierce storm of war, is always willing that the books 
should be posted; and the great measures of the party, for the sup- 
port of which they have received the unmeasured abuse of traitors 
and their sympathizers, held up to the inspection of the patriotic 
millions of this land. 

" We are not the men, sir, to slum such an examination. The party 
which has shaped the policy of this nation since the election to the 
Presidency of the great martyr to the cause of liberty, and which 
has never turned its bach upon the Government in its contest with 
treason and rebellion, and which has procured the recognition of the 
greal principles of freedom throughout the land, has no cause for 
alarm when it is proposed to spread before the world its political 
record. 

"Sir, we are willing that the items of the account shall he called 

over, the long columns added together, a balance-sheet struck, so that 
233 



SHELBY M. CULLOM. :; 

the people inaj see al a glance how the matter stands. And may I 
call upon the loyal people to hold to strict accountability the partj 
who is the debtor, as appears from a posting since the beginning of 
the accursed rebellion." 

At the close of this speech, alter posting the 1 ks and discussing 

Reconstruction at & >me length, Mr. ( lullom said : 

••I do not desire to dea] harshly with these States or any fallen en- 
emy. Rather would J turn from the scenes of rebellion and barbarity 
which have been enacted by those engaged in the attempt to over- 
throw the Republic, and luck upon a brighter, better scene, as we 
commence the great work of rebuilding upon the scattered ruins oi 
those once prosperous States. I shall uol 1"' guided in my action as 
a legislator by malice or revenge. But, sir, 1 cannot forget the thou- 
sands of brave and gallant men who laid down then lives in the ter 
rible struggle that the nation might live. I cannol forget that four 
long years were required to crush out the causeless, wicked rebellion 
against the best Government in the world. 

'• Sir, I cannot forget that oight in April last when that great man. 
so fitly styled the saviour of his country, was murdered by a fiend 
pushed on by the maddened exasperation of a dying rebellion. 

■•Sir, I perhaps feel as keenly the result of that la>t tragic act as any 
man upon this floor. Abraham Lincoln, a martyr for the cause of 
liberty and patriotism, murdered by traitors, uow sleeps in the bosom 
of my own State and city ; the patriotic sons of the Prairie State will 
closely guard his honored remains. And a- we proceed in the per- 
formance of our responsible duties, let us stand by that old maxim, 
■ Let justice be done though the heavens shall fall.'" 

Mr. Oullom was renominated by the Union party of his District, 
in 1866, and was elected by more than double his first majority. In 
the doings and deliberations of the Fortieth Congress, to which he 
was thus elected, Mr. Cullom took an active part. 

On one occasion, in participating in a discussion on a measure for 
the protection of American citizens abroad, Mr. Cullom said : 

" To-day there are about two million people in our country rom 



4 SHELBY M. Cl'LLOM. 

the German State?, and about the same number from Ireland, that 
land of persecution. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, 
there were three hundred and thirty thousand seven hundred and five 
emigrants came to this country ; and during the last fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1867, there were three hundred and ten thousand one hun- 
dred and fourteen. Sir, they are coming — they are coming with 
brave hearts and stout hands ; they are coming with souls panting for 
liberty ; they are coming as it were with the eye of faith fixed and 
gazing upon the tree of liberty planted in American soil, enriched 
with patriots' blood ; and as they come, full of hope and courage, they 
expect soon to gather beneath its protecting branches, and enjoy the 
blessings of a free Government. Shall this nation, as in days past, 
>till say, Conic; Shall our consuls and emigrant agents abroad >till 
continue to point out to those oppressed millions the advantages and 
glories of this country, its lands, its institutions, its Government; 
Shall Ave continue our naturalization laws upon our statute-books? 
Shall we invite men — honest men — to take an oath to support the 
Constitution of the United States, and renounce all allegiance to the 
sovereign over the land of their nativity t Sir. the answer to these 
question- depends upon the action of the Government in protecting 
or failing to protect its people. 

" Our duty is plain, sir. It is to declare the position of the American 
Government, and see that the Government stands by and maintains 
that position, in the protection of the rights of naturalized citizens 
whom we have invited to our shores, and who have sworn allegiance 
to our country. 

" Mr. Sp>eaker, one of the chief glories of a nation is in its dispdsitii iu 
and courage to protect the rights of its people; and the nation that 
will not strive at least to do that deserves to be blotted from the face 
of the earth. I do not fear, sir, either a lack of disposition, courage, 
or ability to do justice to all our citizen- in the present struggle. All 
that is needed is that the American nation shall demand the right, 
and it will be yielded." 

240 




' 



(Rr&X**/cs. 



ROBERT C SCHENCK. 



:/:¥#(>r.EUT (TMMINi; SCIIKXCK was born in Franklin. 

yJ£% Warren County, Ohio, October 1. L809. BLis father, 

(ieneral William ( '. Schenck, was one of the earlj settlers 

in the Miami Valley, and served in the Northwestern Army under 

General Harrison. He died at the capital of Ohio while a member 

of the Genera] Assembly. 

Ai fifteen years of age young Schenck entered the Sophomore < !lass 
in thr Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, whore he graduated in 
18^7. He remained at ( Ixford as a tutor of Latin and French until 
In' received his Master's degree in L830. lie then 'commenced the 
study <it' law in Lebanon, with the celebrated Thomas Corwin. 
Having completed his course of legal studio, he removed to Dayton, 
where he entered upon the practice of law. Here his legal acquire- 
ments and ability a- an advocate gave him rapid advancement in his 
profession, and secured himalarge and lucrative practice. In 1S38 he 
was first a candidate lor public office, lie ran on the Whig ticket for 
the legislature, and failed by a few votes to be elected. He entered 
with zeal into the presidential canvass of 1840, and obtained a reputa- 
tion as a popular speaker second to none in < >hio, save that of Corwin. 
In 1S41 lie was elected to the legislature of Ohio, and was recogniz- 
ed as a leading spirit among the Whigs in that body. At the extra 
session of the legislature in the summer of 1842, he defeated the 
scheme of the Democrats to pass an apportionment bill arranging the 
districts in such a way as to promote the interests of the Democratic 
party. Through his influence the "Whig members of both branches 
of the legislature resigned. The remainder, being less than a quo- 
16 241 



ROBERT C. SCHENCK 



rum. were unable to carry out their plan of " Gerrymandering " the 
State. At the following session an apportionment hill, not so odious 
as the first, was passed in time for the Congressional election. 

Mi - . Schenck was re-elected to the legislature by an increased ma- 
jority. He distinguished himself by laboring to secure economy in 
the finances, advocating internal improvements, and assisting to ef- 
fect a revision of the school law. 

Mr. Schenck rose so rapidly in the estimation of his party, that 
he was, in 1843, nominated for Congress, and was elected by a large 
majority, in a district which was usually very close. He served in 
( iongress with great efficiency during four successive terms. ITe was 
a member of several important committees, and in the Thirtieth Con- 
gress was Chairman of the Committee of Roads and Canals. He 
was recognized as one of the Whig leaders of the House. He took 
a prominent part in discussions, and was regarded as a very formida- 
ble competitor in debate. 

In 1S50, Mr. Schenck refused a re-nomination for Congress, and 
was the following year appointed, by President Fillmore, Minister to 
Brazil. His powers were subsequently extended by a commission to 
treat with the authorities of Uruguay and Paraguay. He negotiated 
several important treaties, by one of which the navigation of the 
Eiver La Plata and its tributaries was made "free to the merchant 
flags "f all nations." 

After Mr. Sehenck's return to the United States in 1854, for a 
number of years he took no active part in politics. In addition to oc- 
casional practice at the bar, he was engaged in the management of a 
line of railroad from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the Mississippi River. 

At the election of a successor to Mr. Chase as United States Sen- 
ator, Mr. Schenck received the vote of the opposition to the Demo- 
cracy, but the preponderance of this party secured the election of its 
candidate, Mr. Pugh. 

Immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter, Mi - . Schenck ten- 
dered his services to President Lincoln, who commissioned him a 
Brigadier-General of Volunteers on the 17th of May, 1861. 



ROBERT C. SCHENCK. 3 

On the 17th of June, 1861, Genera] Sclienek was ordered to take 
possession of the Loudon and Hampshire railroad as far a Vienna. 

Under instructions from General Scott, the road had been re- 
connoitered the day before, and no enemy discovered. General 
Schenck war- ordered to place a n git < ni of bis brigade in cai 
establish guards at certain points designated along the road. As the 
train was approaching Vienna, with bu1 two companies on hoard, it 
was tired upon by a masked battery. Time cars v 
men were killed and two wounded. The locomotive being in the 
rear, the engineer treacherously uncoupled, and returned to Alexan- 
dria, leaving the little band in the midsl of a largely superior force, 
supported bj artillerj and cavalry. The rebels numbered eight Imn- 
dred men. mainly Smith Carolinians, under command of General 
Gn jg. General Schenck with greal coolness rallied Ins men. So 
much courage was displayed that the rebels withdrew, impressed with 
the belief that a heavy force must be in reserve. 

At the battle of Bull Run. July 21, 1861, General Schenck com- 
manded a brigade embracing the First and Second Ohio, the Second 
New York, and a battery of six-pounders. lli~ position was on the 
Warrenton Road, near the stone bridge. A.bout four o'clock in the 
afternoon General Schenck received orders to retreat, and forming 
his brigade brought off his men in such an orderly manner as to dis- 
tinguish them from the frightened mob which comprised the frag- 
ments of the disintegrated army, l'.ut for this orderly movement the 
day's disaster would have been far greater, for General Beauregard 
gave it as one reason why pursuit was not made that he was satisfied 
large re-inforcements held the Warrenton Road. 

General Schenck was next assigned to the command of a brigade 
in West Virginia, and was actively engaged in the campaigns on the 
Ketiawha and New Rivers. On the death of General Lander, he was 
< n'dered to Cumberland. Maryland, where he found everything in a state 
of confusion. Here he found scope for the exercise of his adminis- 
trative abilities, and soon succeeded in restoring order and enforcing 
discipline. 



4 ROBERT C. SCHENCK. 

General Schenck was next ordered to move up the south branch 
of the Potomac. In obedience to tins order, he successively occu- 
pied and held Moorfield, Petersburg, Franklin, and other important 
points. lie was then ordered to push on to the relief of General 
Milroy, who was at McDowell with a force of about four thousand 
men. "When within twenty-two miles of McDowell, a dispatch was 
received from General Milroy, stating that the enemy was at least 
fourteen thousand strong, and would undoubtedly attack the next 
morning. General Schenck pushed onward with about fifteen hun- 
dred infantry, one battalion of cavalry, and a 1 lattery of artillery. The 
march was continued all night, and a conjunction of the forces was 
effected early in the morning. On consultation, General Schenck 
and General Milroy agreed that they could not hold the place against 
such a force as the enemy possessed. Instead of awaiting an attack 
or commencing a retreat, a feint of strength was made, and hard 
fighting continued until dark. Meanwhile baggage was sent (iff in 
wagon trains, and, after the close of the day's demonstration, the en- 
tire army was brought off with slight loss, considering the immense 
odds against it. The commander of the department pronounced the 
march to the relief of Milroy, the battle, and the subsequent retreat, 
one of the most brilliant achievements that had thus far marked the 
campaigns of that region. 

At the battle of Cross Keys General Schenck occupied the right 
of the line. The rebels in heavy force attempted to flank his position. 
They were promptly repulsed, and fell back under a well-directed 
artillery fire. Until three o'clock in the afternoon, the right con- 
tinued to press the enemy, and in no instance lost any part of the 
field they had gained. "When the left gave way, General Fremont 
ordered General Schenck to fall back to the strong position occupied 
in the morning. General Fremont, when relieved of his command, 
turned it over to General Schenck, who, in the absence of General 
Sigel, had command of the First Corps of the Army of Virginia. 

General Schenck, with his division, took an active part in the 
second battle of Pull Pun. His orders were given with great prompt- 



ROBERT C. SCHENCK. 5 

ness and judgment, and be displayed much coolness and bravery on 
the field. Onthesecond day of the battle, in the thickest of the tight, 
ho was severely wounded. A ball struck his right arm, bv which his 
sword was thrown some distance from him. A- the position was 
much exposed, his staff desired to carry him instantly off the field, 
but he persistently and repeatedly refused to go until his sword 
should be found. Ee was conveyed to Washington, and the day fol- 
lowing his arrival the President and other distinguished persons 
risited him and gave him most cordial expressions of sympathy and 
praise. Ee was shortly afterwards promoted to the rank of Major- 
General. Secretary Stanton stated in a letter accompanying the 

commissi that uo official act of his was ever performed with 

greater pleasure than the forwarding of this appointment. 

General Schenck recovered slowly, and sis months elapsed before 
he was again tit for field duty. Before he had entirely recovered 
from his wound, on the 11th of December, 1862, he was assigned bj 
the President to the command of the Middle Department, Eighth 
Army Corps, with headquarters at Baltimore. This was one of the 
most difficult posts of duty in the entire service, and his fitness for it 
was inferred from his great reputation anil experience in civil affairs. 

General Schenck's administration fully met public ex] tation. 

lie di-plavcd ureal executive ability, firmness, and determination. 
lie arrested and promptly punished many who to "declarations of 
sympathy with treason" added "acts of complicity." 

As the rebels of Maryland attempted to fight the battles of the 
"Confederacy"' at the ballot-box, it became a part of General 
Schenck's duty to provide that Union men should be protected 
at the polls, and that voters should take a suitable oath of alle- 
giance. To effect these objects, General Schenck issued " General 
Order Fifty-three," celebrated among the official documents of the 
war, and especially odious to all secession sympathizers. Winter 
Davis and other Union leaders of Maryland were accustomed to speak 
of him as the savior of the State. 

On the 5th of December. 1S63, General Schenck resigned his 



q ROBERT C. SCHENCK. 

commission to take a seat in Congress as a Representative from the 
Third < >hio District. He was immediately appointed to the respon- 
sible position of Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, 
which he held during the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses. 
In this position he had to do with questions of the utmost importance 
affecting the immense army then engaged in suppressing the rebel- 
lion. He projected many important features in the military measures 
which tended to promote the efficiency and success of the army. 
He was the firm friend of the volunteer as against the encroachments 
and assumptions of the regulars. He was a vigorous advocate of the 
draft, the enemy of deserters, and the champion of private soldiers. 

On taking his seat by re-election in the Fortieth Congress, General 
Schcnck was appointed to the most important and responsible posi- 
tion in the House — the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ways and 
Means. His sound views on financial questions and his great in- 
dustry well fitted him for the important and laborious duties pertain- 
ing to this committee. His force of character, his strength of will, 
his readiness in debate, and his general abilities as a statesman, make 
him practically as well as technically "Leader of the House." 

24G 




^^^KggBissgjKsf 



&sp>l4/£> 



JAMES I'. W II. son 



&AMES F. WILSON was born in Newark, Ohio, October 19, 
L828. With noi arly advantages for education, he, like many 
Americans who have attained distinguished positions, was 
dependent upon his own resources for that measure of culture which 
fitted him for those public stations which he was to occupy. Origin- 
ally he learned a mechanical trade, which, however, he early aban- 
doned for the study of the law. 

In L853, he removed to Fairfield, Iowa, when' he entered upon the 
practice of his profession. For a considerable period he edited with 
much abttity the local newspaper of his party, which brought his tal- 
ents into public recognition. 

In 1856, he was elected a member of the Convention to revise the 
State Constitution. His services in this body gave him a reputation 
through the State as a wise and judicious legislator, and a young man 
of great promise. In LS57, he was appointed, by the Governor of 
Iowa, Assistant Commissioner of the 1 >es Moines River Improvement, 
then the chief work of internal improvement in the State. During 
the same year, he was first elected to the Legislature of the State, as a 
member of the House of Representatives. In IS59, he was elected 
a member of the State Senate, of which body he was chosen Presi- 
dent in 1861. During that year, Hon. Samuel R. Curtis, Represen- 
tative in Congress for the district in which he resided, having resigned 
his seat to engage in the war for the Union, Mr. Wilson was elected 
to serve for the unexpired portion of his term. He was subsequently 
elected, without opposition in any of the nominating conventions, to 
the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses. Before the 



FAMES - 

: - - _ . 

-" " ". "- g his de- 

re i 

' 5 2 

- 
- - . - ifhsion 

f the Miss - 

... - _ - 5 State, 

... . 

fits - - -" ■- 

fe in his own State, as in 1 - 

• 

He was an oris 

- - iieh finally 

- - 

I . _ 

the war rendered I 
. ■ 

yahlic 
3arily submitted to it, thai 

: 3 1 Wilson in that esr 
- t to state that 1 s sjandl - irmoil 

- • -I upon the ehair- 

rl - measure which he re- 
■ 

f the ses f the 1 

•duee 
shins 
■ 

- 



the J . 

- 

- 
- 

- - - - 

wool'. a easy cause 1 - " 

- 

fter 1 

I 

- - 

;us 1 tati - - 

- 
■■ The ' ommitl 

t of 1 

subm- tothelea States for 1 

- I 
- ape from t: 

tothes States 

- _ - 

men.~ towards • - 

ing peace. - - States, trust it 1 

- 
_ 
quill" - - " 

The people are r. 

t to 1 

successors 

... 



the machinery that shall execute the decree, or give place t<> those 
who will perform the bidding of the people. We cannot evade the 
responsibility which vests upon us by declaring that we ' accept the 
abolition of slavery as a fact accomplished.' The nation knows that 
this enunciation is a mere lachrymose, diplomatic intrigue employed 
by slavery to arrest the grand vulcanic action that is upheaving the 
great moral ideas which underlie the Republic. The nation demands 
more; its faith embraces more; its acute appreciation of the true 
nature of the disease which preys upon its heart-strings, assures it that 
the work of death cannot be arrested until the fact of slavery's disso- 
lution is accomplished ; and that this may not be until, by an amend- 
ment of the Constitution, we assert the ultimate triumph of libertv 
over slavery, democracy over aristocracy, free government over abso- 
lutism." 

In this Congress, too, Mr. Wilson advocated the employment of 
negro troops. In order to dispose him to accept the services of black 
men to aid in the salvation of the Republic, he never had any preju- 
dices to conquer. The repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. with the 
removal of all the odious relics of the institution of slavery, found hirn 
at all times a prompt and indefatigable supporter. 

Soon after the organization of the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. "Wil- 
son reported from the Judiciary Committee a joint resolution propos- 
ing an amendment of the Constitution to prohibit for ever the pay- 
ment of any portion of the rebel debt. This interest was so great, 
and so complicated with partisan intrigues, that the danger seemed 
imminent that some proportion or the whole of it might lie assumed, 
and its perpetual inhibition became a matter of great public impor- 
tance. The resolution was passed by the House. It was not acted 
upon by the Senate, but the substance of it was included in the four- 
teenth constitutional amendment as finally adopted. 

On (he 18th of the same month, he reported from the Judiciary 
Committee the bill introduced by Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, estab- 
lishing impartial suffrage in the District of Columbia, and opened 
the discussion in its favor in a very pointed and able speech, support- 



JAMES F. WILSON. 

ing the measure energetically in all its stages through the House, 
until its final passage over the Executive veto. 

Ai the -I- . "ii the Isl of March, 1866, he reported, with 

dments, the Civil Rights Bill, which had passed the Senate, 

and engineei'ed it skillfully through the House. Od a motion to re- 

commit the hill, he made an argument on its legal aspects and general 

character. 

At the see ,inl session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, the subject 
of [mpeachmenl of the President was referred to the Judiciary 
Committee, and was continued as a subject of their consideration in 
tin Fortieth Congress. ATter a protracted examination of thi 
dence submitted, and of the law in the case, the committee made 
di\ ided report 5. Mr. Wilson made a report, in behalf of a minority. 
against impeachment. After an energetic debate, bis proposition was 
adopted by the House. Mr. Wilson went to the examination of this 
casewith the prevailing ideas with regard to the law and the practice 
in casesof impeachment— that the power to impeach is a vast, vague, 
almost illimitable prerogative, resting substantial!) alone in the judg- 
ment ct the Senate as to the character of the offensive acts and the 
exigencies of the public welfare. Tin' known deed- of the Executive 
led him to anticipate the necessity of reporting in favor of impeach 
incur, ami he was not inclined to suspect the legal power to meet the 
admitted aets by the extreme remedy of the Constitution. But the 
careful study of the law and history of impeachments which the 
occasion imposed upon him, forced him to the conclusion that, at 
least under our Constitution, no Federal officer could be impeached for 
any offense which was not named in the Constitution, or which was 
not a criminal offense under the laws of Congress. No -itch offense 
was shown. In support of his views he comprised in his report a care- 
ful hut succinct review of every important ca~e of impeachment in 
the British Parliament, and of every case brought before the Senate of 
the United States, with an elucidation of the law and practice under 
both governments, which forms an interesting and valuable treatise 
for the jurist and the historian. The report comprised, also, a sum- 



g JAMES F. WILSON. 

mary of all the evidence bearing upon every charge made against the 
President, and a consideration of the character of each specific, 
charge. 

When the subject came a second time before the House, on new 
charges, Mr. Wilson was one of the most prompt and decided of those 
who demanded the impeachment of the President. In this instance, 
in his judgment, there was no doubt about the power and duty ot 
Congress. In his view, a penal enactment of Congress had been 
violated, clearly, knowingly, intentionally, defiantly. He was made 
one of the Managers appointed by the House to carry the articles of 
impeachment that were found against the President before the Senate 
and to prosecute them there. He gave to that prosecution his best 
and most active efforts, and the failure of the undertaking affected 
him more painfully than any public event with which he had ever 
been connected. 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress Mr. Wilson was also Chairman of the 
Committee on Unfinished Business, and was also a member of the 
Committee on the Air-Line Railroad to New York. He has taken 
much interest in the subject of free communication between the Cap- 
ital of the country and the North, and in the removal of the obstruc- 
tions of the railroad monopolies on that line and elsewhere. Among 
other measures which elicited his sympathies in the Fortieth Con- 
gress, was the bill to protect the rights of American citizens. 

Since the close of the rebellion he has been an active promoter of 
measures for the re-organization of the rebel States. He has been 
careful to provide, so far as any effort of his own was concerned, that 
they should not be restored except under such auspices and conditions 
as gave the country the surest attainable guarantees for the future, 
and yet none have hailed more readily and with greater satisfaction 
their restoration clothed in the garments of loyalty and law. 




^4y\£a^uu 



JOHN F. DRIGGS. 




& 



OTII the grandfathers of John F. Driggs were soldiers 
of the Revolution. Hi- ancestors were residents of Con- 
necticut, whence his parents removed to Kinderhook, 
New York. Here John F. Driggs was born March 8, L814. 

In the year 1S17 his father emigrated to the hanks of the Susque- 
hanna river; and after a brief residence there, moved to Fort Mont- 
gomery in the Highlands of the Hudson, near "West Point. Here he 
resided until his son was fourteen years of age, when he again moved 
to the village of Tarrytown ; and after remaining there two years, he 
settled in New York City. Here the father and mother both died, 
leaving a large family of sons and daughters, who inherited nothing 
except a moral and religious training, and limited education. 

At the age of sixteen John F. Driggs was apprenticed to learn 
the sash, blind, and door-making business. Having finished his ap- 
prenticeship, and worked as a journeyman for two years, he com- 
menced business as a master mechanic. 

Mr. Driggs received strong anti-slavery convictions at a very early 
period of his life. When a boy, residing among the Highlands of 
New York, he had for neighbors many of the men who had been sol- 
diers during the Revolution, and from them he frequently heard the 
story of the war. Such influences, together with the teachings of religi- 
ous and patriotic parents, implanted within him a hatred of oppression 
and slavery which has been his cardinal principle of action in every 
phase of life. 

After his removal to New York, he became vice-president of an 
anti-slavery society, organized among the young men attached to 



2 JOHN F. DRIGGS. 

the Bedford-Street Methodist Episcopal Church. This infant organ- 
ization was strongly opposed by the old and leading members of the 
church, who considered it their duty to stop all anti-slavery agitation. 
Extreme measures were resorted to by the church authorities. To 
show how utterly futile would be their efforts to stifle the liberty of 
speech and the dictates of conscience, Mr. Driggs wrote the follow- 
ing lines : 

While life's blood circles through my veins, 

And of the man one drop remains, 

My voice shall aid to part the chains 
That bind the slave. 

While Southern tyrants wield the rod 

O'er half-starved images of God, 

And Northern dupes obey each nod 
They choose to give ; 

I neither seek nor ask applause 
From men engaged in such a cause; 
I'd rather suffer by their laws 

Than have their praise. 
Go kiss the feet of tyranny, 
Ye cowards, bend the trembling knee, 
Nor dare on bleeding Liberty 

Your eyes to raise. 

With fiendish passions uncontrolled, 
The man who man as slave would hold, 
Would buy and sell his God for gold 

Had he the power. 
So would the man in Christian guise 
Who feels no pangs, nor pity rise, 
Where fetter'd slaves, with pleading eyes, 

Trembling cower. 

So would the man who claims to be 
The friend of human liberty, 
Yet for the wrongs of slavery 

Will find excuse. 
So Northern dupes and Southern knaves, 
Who are yourselves the meanest slaves, 
No fairer title merit craves 
Than your abuse. 



JOHN F. DRIGGS. 



Opposition to Blavery is no new thing with Mr. Driggs, but has 
been a deeply felt and openly avowed conviction from his early years. 
Mr. Driggs, being an ardent admirer of Jefferson and the Declar- 
ation of Independence, was a Democrat, but took no pari in politics, 
excepi 1" rote, until L844, when he actively participated in the re- 
form movement by which James Harper was elected mayor of New 
V<>rk. Mr. Driggs was appointed by the Common Council Superin- 
tendent of the Blackwell's Island Penitentiary, and held the office 
two years, discharging its duties with fidelity and to the satisfaction 
of the people. 

In 1856 Mr. Driggs removed to Easl Saginaw, in the State of 
Michigan, where he now resides. On his removal to the West, he 
immediately identified himself with the Republican party just organ- 
izing. Two years after his settlement in Michigan, he was elected 
President of the Village of East Saginaw, by a large majority over 
an old resident and popular Democratic lawyer. 

In 1859 he was elected a member of the Michigan Legislature, re- 
ceiving three hundred and twenty-seven majority out of five hundred 
votes east in his village, and thirty-one majority in the district, which 
gave three hundred Democratic majority on the remainder of the 
ticket. 

Upon the accession of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, Mr. Driggs 
was appointed Register of the United States Land Office for the 
Saginaw District. 

In 1862 Mr. Driggs received the Republican nomination for Re- 
presentative to the Thirty-eighth Congress from the Sixth District of 
Michigan. This district is very large, embracing all the Upper Pen- 
insula, including the entire Lake Superior region, with it- vast 
copper, iron. salt, and lumber interests. In this district, which was 
claimed by the Democrats, and regarded by the Republicans as 
doubtful, Mr. Driggs received a majority of eight hundred and fifty- 
seven votes. He has since been twice re-elected, receiving in 1S64 a 
majority of eighteen hundred and fifty-six, and in 1S66 a majority of 
four thousand and forty-six. 



4 JOHX F. DRIGGS. 

Soon after the commencement of the war, Mr. Driggs aided his 
eldest son in raising a company of volunteers for the first regiment of 
sharpshooters, which he commanded, and which did gallant sen-ice 
until the close of the rebellion. 

During the war, Mr. Driggs devoted all his time, when not in 
Congress, to the work of raising men for the army. When he re- 
turned home from the long session of 18G4, he met Governor Blair 
in Detroit, who requested him to raise one of the six regiments al- 
lotted to his State under the last call for three hundred thousand 
men. Mr. Driggs replied that he had been absent from his family 
for eight months, and could not undertake the work. " If we do not 
save our country,*' replied the Governor, " what will become of our 
families ?" Mr. Driggs promptly responded, " I will try." He went 
immediately to work, and in sixty days the Twenty -ninth Regiment 
of Michigan infantry was ready for the field. 

While in Washington, Mr. Driggs was untiring in his attentions 
to sick and wounded soldiers in the hospital. When an Indian 
lieutenant in his son's company, and his uncle, a former chief, died 
of their wounds in the hospital, Mr. Driggs had their bodies em- 
balmed and seut home to their friends at his own expense. 

In Congress, Mr. Driggs has been laborious and faithful to the 
country at large and to the interests of his widely-extended district. 
He has been very successful in securing grants of assistance to public 
improvements, greatly needed in his new and undeveloped district. 

Since he took his seat in Congress he has never been absent at the 
commencement or close of any session. He has laboriously and 
faithfully served on the Committees of Public Lands, Pensions, and 
Mines and Mining, rarely missing a meeting of his committees or a 
vote in the House 

250 





re 



JOHN LYNCH. 



™>5BrOIEN LYNCH was bom of ] r bul respectable parents, in 

.^^ the city of Portland, Maine, February L5, 1825. Earing beeii 
J§^j£ ^ l aD orphan at tne :| .-'' of seven yeai-s, he was apprenticed 
to a house carpenter, with the condition that he should attend school 
until fourteen, and then serve his apprenticeship of seven years. His 
master, soon changing his occupation to thai of a retail grocer, took 
him into the store as "boy of all work." 

Young Lynch was favored with good opportunities of elementary 
instruction, and graduated at the Portland Latin High School at the 
age of sixteen. He soon after became clerk in a wholesale grocery 
and commission house, where he remained until 1848, when he com- 
menced the same business on his i iwn account. This, with the import- 
ing business, he has continued until the present time, with very satis- 
factory success. 

Mr. Lynch became an Abolitionist as soon as he was capable of 
forming an opinion upon moral and political questions. On becom- 
ing a voter, he identified himself with the Free-Soil party, and con- 
tinued to act with it until the formation of the Republican partj . of 
which he has been an active member from the first. 

He was elected a member of the Maine Legislature in 1S61, and 
was re-elected two years after. He did valuable service to the State 
on the important committees of '-Frontier and Coast Defenses," 
" Banks and Banking," and " Finance." 

In 1862 he was appointed Commandant of Camp Abraham Lin- 
coln, with the rank of Colonel, and organized the Regiments of Maine 
Volunteers that rendezvoused there. 

In 186-4, Mr. Lynch was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, over 



2 JOHN LYNCH. 

Hon. L. D. M. Sweat, Democratic member of the Thirty-eighth Con- 
gress, by fifteen hundred majority. 

Two vears after, he was re-elected over the same competitor by a 
majority of about four thousand. His native city, where both candi- 
dates reside, gave Mr. Lynch more majority than all the vote- she gave 
his competitor. 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. Lynch served on the Committee 
of Banking and Currency, and on the Special Committee to form a 
Bankrupt Law. One of the first bills passed by the Thirty-ninth 
Congress, was that introduced by him to prevent the return and reg- 
ister of those American vessels which deserted the flag during the re- 
bellion. In advocating this measure. Mr. Lynch said : 

" The question arises whether it is right to allow vessels to come 
back in this way by an evasion of the spirit of the laws ; whether it 
is just to those owners of vessels who have refused to desert the flag 
of their country in her hour of peril '. It is a cowardly argument to 
offer in behalf of these ship-owners, to say the country could not pro- 
tect them. < )n the same principle the whole population might leave 
with their property and place themselves under foreign protection. 
It is for the people to protect the country in time of war; they are 
part of the country, and ought not to desert her when in danger. It 
would certainly be dangerous policy for a nation to offer inducements 
for its citizen- to desert with their property, and identify their inter- 
ests with its enemies in time of war. 

In July, 1866, Mr. Lynch obtained the passage of a law exempting 
from duty materials to bo used in building up that portion of 
Portland destroyed by the great fire. 

In March, 1866, he made a speech on the Loan Bill, and against 
the contraction of the currency. 

" In regard to our financesj" said he on this occasion, " we have re- 
ceived and believed in the old and long-established precedents of the 
nations of Europe. Because it took Great Britain many years to re- 
turn to specie payments after an exhausting war, the theory has been 

accepted almost without question that we cannot do otherwise. Sir. 

258 



JOHN LYNCH 3 

the experiences of the country for the lasl five years have exploded 
many false theories and falsified many sanguine predictions. It was 
positively asserted by our foreign foes that the South could doI be 
conquered; that it never yet had been that a free people of the num- 
bers, resources, ami territory of the Southern people were def 
and compelled to submit to the will of a conqueror; that we could 
nut raise armies sufficienl for the work ; that we hail mi money of our 
own, ami could borrow none in Europe ; that the armies, even if raised, 
would, in ><>i i a return to civil lite, so disorganize society thai < rovern- 
ment would !«• upheaved and civil order destroyed. 

" Well. sir. we have seen the result of all these predict ion- ; we have 
astonished tie- eh ilized world by setting at naught the most profound 
ili ies of tin-" modern sages ; we have overturned the accepted no- 
tions and ideas of past centuries, and in their stead we have hewn 
out our own destiny in our own way, until we stand on ground where 
we may safely hid defiance to the assaults of the combined physical 
and moral Powers of Europe. 

■• In view of all these facts, so grandly and imperishably carved in 
our history, why should we follow the idea- of Europe in regard to 
our financial, any more than we did in regard to our military, admin- 
istration? Because the London Times raises the cry. and our own 
croakers echo it, that " we must have a financial crisis" in passing 
from a paper to a specie circulation, is it necessary for us to precipi- 
tate one upon the country in order to verify the predictions of these 
prophets of evil '. 

"Every day's experience goes to prove that our true financial policy 
is to go on and provide for the maturing obligations of the Govern- 
ment, without contracting or disturbing the currency of the country. 
which is the life-blood of its commerce. Let it alone, and it will flow- 
when it is wanted, and find ample field for employment." 

On the 4th of February, 1867, air. Lynch introduced hills "to pro- 
vide against undue contraction of the currency," and " to provide for 
a gradual resumption of specie payments." He introduced the same 
bills in the succeeding session of Congress, and on the 7th of March, 



4 JolIN LYNCH. 

186S, made an able speech in support of the measures. " Sir." said 
he, " iu my view, it is of the first importance that the currency of the 
country shall, as soon as practicable, be placed upon a specie basis. 
That is the only sure foundation for our system of paper money. * 
• A resumption of specie payments cannot be secured by any 
mere arbitrary enactment that it shall take place immediately or on 
any specified day in the future; not by writing at once over the door 
of the Treasury, 'Specie payments are resumed,' nor by giving an 
order that such inscription shall be placed there on the 1st day of Jan- 
uary, 1869, nor by attempting the financial impossibility of borrow- 
ing $250,000,000 of coin in Europe, where our bonds are now selling 
at about thirty per cent, discount, and removing it to this country 
with the expectation of retaining it as the permanent basis of our 
paper money. If we promise to resume to-morrow, the public know 
the promise cannot be kept. The margin of forty per cent, existing 
between gold and paper cannot be extinguished in a day. The 
chasm between our paper currency and gold cannot be leaped; it 
must be bridged. If we promise to resume a year hence, with no 
provision for appreciating, in the meantime, our paper toward a par 
with gold, and no provision guarding against the otherwise irresisti- 
ble effect of a sudden panic after the resumption has taken place, the 
public will not believe that we can perform our promise; and this 
want of faith insures failure. If we undertake only what the finan- 
cial world regards as practicable to be accomplished, we shall so in- 
spire confidence as to insure success. To inspire confidence rather 
than tii create distrust, should now be the first aim of our financial 
policy. 

Mr. Lynch was among the first to arrive at the conclusion that the 
President should be impeached. He voted for Impeachment when 
the measure was first introduced in the House. When it finally 
passed on the 24th of February, he made an able and effective speech 
advocating the taking of the step, which he styled " one of the high- 
est prerogatives of the House." 

2G0 




A i 





ebox c. ingersoll. 




T" BOX CLARK DSTGEES* >LL was born in Oneida County, 
Mew York, December L2, L831. In L843, he removed with 
hi- father to Illinois. I Ia\ ing finished his education at Pa- 
ducah, Kentucky, he entered upon the -tml\ of law. and w a- admitted 
to the bar in L854, ami located himself at Peoria, Illinois, for tb< 
tice of his profession. 

In 1856, Mr. Ingersoll was elected to tin- Illinois Legislature. He 
served, for a time, as Colonel of a Regiment of Illinois Volunteers in 
the War of the Rebellion. In 1864, he was elected a representative 
to the Thirty-eighth Congress for the unexpired term of lion. < hven 
Lovejoy ; and has been re-elected to the Thirty-ninth. Fortieth, 
and Forty-first Congress. 

In the Fortieth Congress, Mr. Ingersoll holds the responsible po- 
sition of Chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia. 
He has shown himself an active and able Representative in Con- 
gress. His speeches give evidence of earnestness, joined with a sound 
and discriminating judgment. In his speech on the government of 
the insurrectionary States, delivered on the 7th of February, 1867, 
he thus advanced his views touching the status of these States as 
affected by their rebellion: 

" I hold that the rebel States, by rebellion, destroyed all civil gi >vern- 
ment within their boundaries, and destroyed their political organiza- 
tions known to the Constitution of the United States, and, conse- 
cmently, they ceased to be States of this Union ; and by the operation 
of the act of secession, culminating in armed rebellion, they became 
the territory of the United States, when we, by our successes on the 
battle-field, made a conquest of their armies." 



EBON C. INGERSOLL 



We present an extract from another speech by Mr. Ingersoll, which 
is interesting, not only as a specimen of extemporaneous oratory, but 
as an illustration of opinions of the President entertained in Con- 
gress, pending the great contest between him and the Legislative 
branch of the Government: 

"Sir, Andrew Johnson has made no sacrifices worthy of any men- 
tion, and if he has. an appreciative and grateful people would re- 
member them without his thrusting them in their faces on every oc- 
casion. "What has he suffered '. lie has not suffered so much as the 
humblest private that fought in our armies during the rebellion. 
The humblest private that fought at Gettysburg or in the AYuderness 
i- entitled to more credit than is Andrew Johnson for what he has 
done. Has Andrew Johnson ever fought the enemy in battle? 
Nil, sir. Has lie ever made an effort to find the enemy on the tented 
field I Never. Has he ever even smelled gunpowder i Has he ever 
camped on the frozen ground '. Has he ever stood guard in the stormy 
and dreary nights numbed with the frosts of winter; Has he ever 
suffered any of the privations common to the soldier, or endured any 
of the hardships of campaign life '. No, never; not even an hour! 

" "What has Andrew Johnson suffered '. lie suffered being United 
States Senator in 1861; he has suffered being military governor of 
Tennessee, snugly ensconced in a mansion at Nashville, with a briga- 
dier-general's straps on his shoulders, and feasted and toasted, with 
sentinels pacing before his door while he was securely and quietly 
sleeping through the watches of the night, while others braved the 
dangers he never met ! 

"And will the American people allow him to impose his infa- 
mous policy of •• restoration " upon them because he claims to have 
suffered so much ( No, sir, not even if his pretended sufferings were 
real. Andrew Johnson has suffered nothing worthy of remark, un- 
less it be that ho has suffered the pangs of an uneasy conscience 
for his perfidy to the principles of the Union party. That kind of 
suffering would be good for him, and I hope he may have plenty of it. 

There is certainly plenty of cause, and I trust it may have a good effect." 

362 



EBON C. INGERSOLL. 3 

Mr. Ingersoll delivered a speech in the House of Representatives, 
on the 22d of February, 1868, pending the consideration of the 
Report of the Committee on Reconstruction in regard to the Im- 
peachment of the President. From thisspeech we make the follow- 
ing extracts : 

'• I here admit freely that it is a painful duty imposed upon me as 
a Representative, to be called upon to vote under the solemn obli- 
gations of my oath for Article- of [mpeachment against the Chief 
Magistrate. I bear uo ill-will or malice toward the President. I am 
actuated by no unworthy motive. 1 am actuated only by a high and 
conscientious sense of duty. Beretofore, when thisquestion was pre 
sented to this House, I voted uo, for the reason that 1 did not believe 
the evidence sustained the charges : neither did I believe thai a con- 
viction would follow if the articles were adopted and sent to the 
Senate. But here is a plain, simple case, as I understand it. The 
President has, in my opinion, willfully violated the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, as well as the Tenure-of-Office law. I hold that 
his offense is complete, even if there had been no Tenure-of-Office law 
in existence; for under -the Constitution the President has no authority 
whatever, while the Senate is in session, to remove a Cabinet officer, 
or any other, who has been confirmed by the Senate, in the manner 
in which he has removed Mr. Stanton from the Department of War. 
We do not need the Tenure-of-Office act in this case. The offense of 
the President is complete, independent of that act. There is no pro- 
vision in the Constitution giving to the President authority to make 
removals at all ; he has, however, exercised that power upon the im- 
plication that the power to appoint carries with it the power to re- 
move." 

After maintaining that the President is not a judicial officer, and 
has no right to pass judgment on the constitutionality of any law, 
Mr. Ingersoll closed by saying : 

" We passed the Tenure-of-Office law. The President vetoed it. 
We passed it over his veto. Then it became his sworn duty to execute 
it. Instead of doing that, he defies the law. He executes his veto. 



4 EBON C. INGERSOLL. 

and not the law. Is it not an alarming condition of affairs when the 
President of this great country goes deliberately at work to carry 
into execution his veto in defiance to that law, and all law ? The 
President must learn that it is his duty to execute and obey the law, 
and that he must suffer his defunct vetoes to sleep undisturbed in 
that sleep which should know no waking. For the commission of 
this great offense by the President, I shall vote for the resolution of 
impeachment. 

" We must not be surprised to find a party here or in the country 
ready to stand by and defend the President. All history shows that 
so long as a man possesses great power and greater patronage, he will 
have a party who profess to be his friends. When that monster of 
Roman history — Nero — poisoned his brother, his party declared that 
he had saved Home. When he procured the assassination of his wife, 
they praised him for his justice. And when ho had assassinated his 
mother, they kissed his bloody hands, and returned thanks to the 
gods. No matter, then, what the President may do, he will have a 
party so long as he retains power and patronage. But let us not 
falter in our plain duty. To forgive the President now, would be to 
betray the Republic." 

Near the close of the Impeachment trial, certain newspaper cor- 
respondents charged Mr. Ingersoll with " recreancy and treachery," 
in saying that he voted for impeachment because he " was compelled 
to do it, though he felt at the time that it was a party blunder." In 
the course of a "personal explanation" in the House, Mr. Ingersoll 
said : 

" I voted for impeachment for the reason that the managers pre- 
sented to my mind a prima facie case against the President. I 
voted for the Articles of Impeachment because I believed it was my 
duty to do so. I have never since felt that it was a blunder ; neither 
have I ever had reason to change my views on that subject, nor 
have I expressed any change of views." 




^ 






RALPH P. BUCKLAM). 



WI'i; recent civil war, the war of L812, and that of the 
American Revolution, are all associated with the history of 
AvfSsf the suhject of this sketch and bis immediate ancestors. His 
grandfather was a captain of artillery in the Revolutionary "War, from 
Eas1 Hartford, Connecticut. He was taken prisoner by the British, 
and died in the Jersey prison-ship, near New York. His father wenl 
from Massachusetts to Portage County, Ohio, as a surveyor, in 
L811. He enlisted as a volunteer in Hull's army, was surrendered 
at Detroit, and died at Ravenna, Ohio, a few months after bis return 
borne, from disease contracted in the sen ice. 

Ralph Pomeroy Buckland was born in Leyden, Massachusetts, 
January 20, 1812. His father, a short time before his death, had 
conveyed his family to the West, and settled them in the wilderness 
of Ohio. His premature death left them in dependent circumstances. 

Ralph was dependent upon the exertions of his mother and the 

kindness of friends for support until he was old enough to earn a 

living by his own labor. He had the advantage of attending the 

common schools of the country during the winter, and attended the 

academy at Talmadge during the summer of 1830. In the following 

autumn be went down the Mississippi River, stopping a few months 

at Natchez, where be found employment as a clerk. In the spring 

of 1S31 be was sent by bis employers to New Orleans in charge of 

two flat-boats loaded with flour. He remained at Xew Orleans as 

clerk of the cotton house of Harris, Wright & Co. until the summer 

of 1831:, when he returned to Ohio, spent a year at Kenyon College, 

studied law with Gregorv Powers at Middleburv. and Whitlessey & 
265 



o RALPH P. BUCKLAND. 

Newton at Canfield, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 
1837. During the time he was at New < Weans his leisure moments 
were occupied in prosecuting his studies and in learning the French 
language. In the summer of 1S37 he commenced the practice of his 
profession at Fremont. Ohio, where he now resides. 

In January. 1838, lie was married to Miss Charlotte Boughton, of 
Canfield, Ohio. In 1855 he was elected to the State Senate, and re- 
elected in lv>7, serving four years. 

In October, 1861, he began to organize the Seventy-second Eegi- 
ment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which in three months was fully 
equipped and ready for the field. Soon after entering upon active 
service. Colonel Buckland was assigned to the command of the Fourth 
Brigade of Sherman's Division. 

On the 7th of March, 1SG2, he moved up the Tennessee River, and 
on the 17th encamped at Pittsburg Landing— the left of his brigade 
resting at Shiloh Church. On the 3d of April he made a recon- 
noissance with his brigade four miles to the front, and on the 4th he 
participated in a skirmish with some of the enemy's advanced forces. 
On the morning of the 6th, Colonel Buckland's brigade was in line 
full one hour before the hard fighting began. He advanced his lines 
about two hundred yards on the left and about four hundred yards 
on the right, and met the enemy. The fighting was desperate for 
two hours. During this time the colonel was riding along the line 
encouraging his men by word and example, the rebels being repeat- 
edly driven back. Colonel Buckland's brigade maintained its 
ground until ordered back by General Sherman. He was heavily 
engaged during the second day, and was continually in the saddle. 

On one occasion, being ordered to advance his brigade under a very 
severe fire of artillery and musketry from the enemy, one of his color- 
bearera hesitated to advance. Colonel Buckland rode to the front, 
seized the colors, and planted them at the desired point. His brigade 
instantly advanced, with cheers. 

General Lew. Wallace remarked on Tuesday morning, while riding 
over the ground which the brigade had occupied, that, "judging from 

266 



RALPH P. BUCKLAND ;; 

the dead bodies, here seems to have been the best and the hardest 
fighting." 

Colonel Buckland continued in command of the brigade during 
the advance on Corinth until about the middle of May, when he was 
succeeded bj General J. W. Denver. At Memphis, Tennessee, la- 
was assigned to the command of a brigade in General Lauman's divi- 
sion, and formed part of the Tallahatchie Expedition. 

As - as the new- reached Genera] Grant thai General Van 

Dorn had taken H0II3 Springs, General Buckland was sent with his 
brigade to retake the place. This having been accomplished, he was 
sent to drive Forrest from his camp at Dresden, Wesf Tennessee. 

On the 20th of March he joined General Sherman's corps in front 
of Vicksburg, and participated in the series of battles winch occurred 
in the movement to the rear of that place. During the siege he was 
always active and vigilant, and at times much exposed. On the 22d 
of May he led his brigade down the grave-yard road, marching on 
foot to support the assault on the enemy's work-, exposed to a mur- 
derous fire of artillery and musketry. Although General Buckland 
was constantly exposed until all his regiments were in position, and 
his men were shot down around him in great numbers, he escaped 
unhurt. 

General Buckland remained with his command in the rear of 
Vicksburg after the surrender until the 1st of October, when his right 
arm was broken by the falling of his horse. By this injury he was 
incapacitated for active field service, but continued to command his 
brigade, except for a short time, until on the 26th of January. L864, 
he was assigned to the command of the District of Memphis, where 
his administrative abilities were exemplified and his integrity of 
character was (dearly manifested. 

At the time of the Forrest raid into the city, General ('. C. Wash- 

burne commanded that department, with his headquarters at Memphis. 

General Buckland had command of the troops in the city. Most of 

the troops had been sent in pursuit of Forrest under command of 

General A. J. Smith. Forrest eluded Smith near Oxford. Mississippi, 

267 



4 RALPH P. BUCKLAND. 

made a rapid march to Memphis, captured, the cavalry patrol, rushed 
over the infantry pickets, and was in Memphis before daylight, took 
possession of General Washburne's headquarters, capturing his staff 
officers, clerks, and guards — the General escaping to the fort below 
the city. When General Buckland was awakened by the sentinel at 
the door, the rebels were in possession of a considerable part of the 
city, and on all sides of General Buckland's headquarters. General 
Buckland rallied about one hundred and fifty men quartered near 
him, caused a small alarm-gun to be rapidly fired, and instantly 
at lacked the rebels at General Washburne's headquarters, although 
they out-numbered him four to one. General Buckland very soon 
concentrated all his forces, which were stationed in different parts of 
the city, and followed up his attack so rapidly and with such spirit 
that in less than an hour lie had driven every rebel out of the city, 
and attacked General Forrest's main force just outside; and after a 
sharp fight of about one hour General Forrest was in full retreat, 
having entirely failed in the object of his attack on Memphis. But 
for General Buckland, Forrest would have held the city and captured 
immense stores of Government property. 

General Buckland remained in command of the post at Memphis 
until December 24, 1864, when he resigned his commission. 

Without having sought or expected political favor, lie had been 
nominated for Representative in the Thirty-ninth Congress while still 
serving in the army. Without having gone home to further his in- 
terests, he had been elected by the people of the Ninth District of 
Ohio. In obedience to their wishes he left the military for the civil 
service of the country. During the Thirty -ninth Congress he served 
on the Committee on Banking and Currency and on the Militia. In 
1SGG he was re-elected to Congress, in which he is now giving his 
country and constituents the same conscientious faithful service which 
marked his military career. 



DE'MAS BARNES. 




OMMERCE as well as politics has representatives in the 
Fortieth Congress. Prominent among these is Demas Bar 
ik's, who "was born in Gorham Township, Ontario County, 
New York, April 1. L827. Left an orphan while vet in infancy, his 
life, even as a child, was full of industry and sacrifice. 

At the age of fourteen he went forth into the world penniless and 
alone. With all his worldly possessions in his hand, he worked his 
way towards New Fork City, where, after weeks of labor and travel, 
he arrived without money to buy a breakfast, lie immediately went 
to work and earned his first meal by noon. Soon alter, as country 
boys are apt to do, he conceived a desire to visit a theater. Arriving 
in front of the Park Theater, fascinated by the bill and the music, he 
took account of his cash, but had not enough to enter the eh 

amphitheater. Where that theater then -t 1. is now one of the 

finest warehouses in America, owned by our youthful hero, and 
worth not less than one hundred thousand dollars. 

Business being depressed, he again drifted into the country, worked 

upon a farm, and attended district school as lie could. At eighteen 

we find him a clerk in a store; at twenty a country merchant; 

at twenty-two commencing a small business in the city of New York. 

The dependence of a widowed mother, and half brothers and sisters 

by her subsequent marriage, surrounded him with responsibilities 

and inspirited him with energy, frugality, and ambition. Depriving 

himself of luxuries, he applied himself to business with untiring 

assiduity and with signal success. 

He soon became the leading merchant in his department of busi- 
20Q 



2 DEMAS BARNES. 

ness in the world, his principal house being in New York, with 
branches in San Francisco, New Orleans, ami Montreal. 

While accumulating wealth by extraordinary exertions, he was ever 
alive to his want of literary culture, and applied himself at all times 
to the collection of useful information. A close observer of near and 
remote events, and a patron of benevolent institutions, his lectures 
before agricultural societies, and contributions to the press, called 
him into public notice, and obtained for him, from one of the Uni- 
versities, the title of LL.D. 

Mr. Barnes early became a prominent member of the Chamber of 
Commerce in the city of New York, a director in insurance com- 
panies, and a trustee in benevolent institutions. 

Having invested largely in the mineral lodes of the Western 
States, and being president of several mining companies, he felt it 
his duty to inspect them in person, and in lSo\"> he undertook the 
arduous task. He crossed the continent to the Pacific Ocean in a 
wagon, visiting the mines of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Califor- 
nia. While making this trip, he contributed to the journals a 
series of letters replete with interesting narratives of personal adven- 
ture and practical observation-. 

These letters were subsequently published by Van Nostrand as a 
book, entitled, " From the Atlantic to the Pacific." 

In politics Mr. Barnes was lirst a Whig, and an ardent admirer 
of Clay and Webster. Opposed to oppression and inclined to 
progress, lie entered the Republican party at its organization, ami 
as a private citizen resisted the extension of slavery into the Terri- 
tories. 

Deeming the Republican party to be drifting into sectionalism, in 
1860 he declined to go as a delegate to the Chicago National Con- 
vention, saying, " I am a citizen — not a politician." 

Being convinced that the nomination of Lincoln and Hamlin would 
prove the initial point in a future war, he immediately coined his 
political theories into commercial accounts, and on the 16th of June, 
I s ''' 11 . closed his business with the Cotton States. lie was the first 



DEMAS BARNES. 3 

merchant in America who refused to do business except for cash. 
When the war came, it tumid him financially prepared. 

In 1864 he was uominated for Congress, bul declined in favor of 
another representative of his own political faith. In L866 he was 
again nominated, and elected by the largest majority ever obtained 
in his district. 

In Congress he was placed upon the important Committees of 
Hanking and Currency and of Education and Labor. 

I!.' was from the first opposed to the- inflation of the cum 
But this measure having been forced upon the country, and it.- results 
becoming incorporated into our financial system, he saw disaster in a 
too rapid contraction, and in an elaborate and exhaustive speech, de- 
livered January 1 1. IS68, said : 

'•The currency of a country is like the center of a wheel, the value 
of property resting upon it being the circumference. We can follow 
its expansive centrifugal force without danger; but when the motion 
is reversed, and it acts with contracting centripetal power, it checks 
the momentum of the financial world. Remove the center, and the 
circumference crumbles with the slightest touch. The conditions of 
society accommodate themselves to an expanding currency without 
interruption. They cannot do so when contraction takes place, for 
the reason that one sidi of the account becomes fixed and immo 
As money disappears, values shrink with unequal rapidity, but debts 
remain at their full face. A large proportion of our property is re- 
presented by credits or debts which no legislation can reduce. We 
have §21,000,000,000 of property represented by §700,000,00 
circulating medium; or three per cent, of money to ninety-seven per 
cent, of confidence and credit. We have a national, state, municipal, 
and personal indebtedness of over §6,200,000,000. To contract our 
currency $100,000,000, reduces the total value of our property one- 
seventh, or |3,000, .000. To contract §300,000,000, as is pro- 
posed, woidd extinguish one-half the values of our property, and 
leave our indebtedness wholly unaffected, the end of which is bank- 
ruptcy to the citizen and repudiation by the Government. We have 



DEM AS BARNES. 



inflated the balloon ; we Lave landed upon a barren island. Instead 
of undertaking to swim to the mainland against tides, against winds 
and currents, I would wait for the friendly craft to insure our safe 
deliverance. We must now wait for the increase of wealth and 
population to overtake our changed condition, and restore us to the 
specie standard of the world." 

Mr. Barnes opposed the Impeachment of the President, in a speech 
delivered in the House, characterizing it as a party measure fraught 
with mischief to the country, as merging the Executive and Legisla- 
tive Departments into one, inciting the spirit of retaliation, involv- 
ing the stability of our national bonds, and possibly leading to civil 
war. He closed his argument with the following words : "I ask, 
gentlemen, what is to he the effect of their hurrying this nation into 
the jaw- of a revolution, the end of which no man can foretell? * * 
I beseech you to pause in these high-handed, these useless, these 
dangerous measures. Behold the stagnation, destruction, sorrow and 
death, which have already followed as the result of your legislation. 
Retaliation is an element of human nature. Long pent-up rage strikes 
with mighty force when its chains are broken. Your zealous, enthu- 
siastic, ambitious, and dangerous men, control the action of unthink- 
ing good men. The history of the past admonishes you — the uncer- 
tainty of the future warns you of what may follow. You are cer- 
tainly sowing the seeds of anarchy, destroying national credit, and 
disheartening our already despondent people. Be wise, he just, he 
humane while yet you can. The memories of the past, the hopes 
of the future, our own liberties, the liberties and prosperity of our 
children and of our children's children, are involved in the vote you 
this day give. As for me. if you this day impeach the President of 
the United States upon the evidence now hefore us, I shall consider 
our liberties less secure, properties less valuable, our national honor 
tarnished, our country disgraced, our rights invaded, and the future 
full of woe and untold disaster." 

073 




7.a/Uo 



kim;i)i:imck a. pike. 



< >RTV years ago, Calais. Maine, was a new settlement on a 




strip of land justcleared of forest. Situated at the head of 
the navigable waters of the river St. Croix, it was aecessi- 
ble to sailing vessels eight or nine months in the year, and was con- 
nected with the Western towns by a siDgle road, over whiehaweekly 
mail came without regularity, bringing Boston papers six or eight 
days old. The chief employment of it- enterprising pioneer popula- 
tion was lumbering, a pursuit calculated to give strong and marked 
development to both body and mind. The exposure to the intense 
cold in short winter days and long winter nights, the long journeys 
through trackless forests and over ice-bound lake-, the danger of get- 
ting lost in the woods, and the expedients necessary to he devised in 
order to keep alive under such circumstances, all tended to give to 
the lumbermen of that day a vigor of holy and mind which charac- 
terizes their children to this day. It gave fortitude and contempt for 
danger such as carried the Sixth Regiment Maine Volunteers, raised 
in this region, through their Woody charges at St. Mary's Heights and 
Rappahannock Station. 

In this then remote settlement of Calais, Frederick A. Pike was 
born in 1S17. When he was quite young, it was his misfortune to 
lose his father by accidental death. The care and support of the 
family thus devolved upon the widowed mother, a lady whose devo- 
tion, energy, and good sense are shown in the eminent success of her 
sons. The eldest of these is the well-known " J. S. P." late Minister 
to the Hague, whose racy epigrammatic articles in the Tribune and 
other leading journals have given him a wide reputation. The second 



o FREDERICK A. PIKE. 

son, Charles E. Pike, Esq., recently Solicitor of the Internal Revenue 
in Washington, now in active practice at the Boston bar, has long 
been highly appreciated and eminently successful in his profession. 

Frederick A. Pike, as a boy, was educated at public schools, taught 
three summer months by a woman, and three winter months by a 
man. He subsequently spent a short time at the County Academy, 
and entered Bowdoin College in the Class of 1839. In those days 
boating had not become so common and popular among collegians as 
at present, yet .Mr. Pike made a voyage in an open boat from New 
Brunswick, Maine, to Boston, a distance of one hundred and fifty 
miles, across a stormy and unsheltered sea. at so much personal risk as 
to attract the notice of the newspapers of the day. Leaving college 
without graduation, Mr. Pike employed himself for some years as a 
teacher of public schools, and as a mercantile clerk. Meanwhile he 
studied law. and was admitted to the bar in 1841. 

As a lawyer, lie early took high rank as an advocate and manager 
of causes on trial. He completely identified himself with the feelings 
of hi- client, and exhibited an unyielding determination to takecare 
of his interests. Skillful in the examination of witnesses, quick to 
see. and take advantage of the mistakes of his opponent,and ready 
on all the points of law anil practice, he attained to a high degree of 
professional success. 

He served for several years as Prosecuting Attorney for the County, 
lie was for some time editor of the local newspaper, and has ever 
since retained, with greater or less intimacy, his connection with the 
press. 

In politics, Mr. Pike was originally a Whig, anil was an avowed 
Abolitionist when the name was odious. Since the formation of the 
Republican party, he has been an earnest and consistent supporter of 
its principles. 

In 1856, Mr. Pike*s friends made a strenuous effort to send him to 
Congress, but failed to secure his nomination. In this year he was 
elected to the State Legislature, and was returned for the two succeed- 
ing years, during the last of which he was Speaker of the House. 



FREDERICK A. PIKE. 3 

In the Legislature he held a prominent position. Ee made many 
noteworthy speeches, particularly one upon a railroad controversy oi 
general interest, which is regarded as the happiest forensic effort of 
his life. 

In I860, Mr. Pike was elected, by the Republicans, a Representative 
in the Thirty-seventh Congress, and has subsequently served in the 

Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses. Hemosl cl r 

fully performed the augmented duties devolved upon his office by the 
emergencies of the war. Ee was assiduous in his efforts to comply 
with the numerous requests of his correspondents. In addition to 
his reTilar duties as a member of < longres; . he was occupied in visit- 
ing hospitals, looking after the interests of soldiers, and in transact- 
in" business for his constituents with the various departments of the 
( rovernment. 

During the war, Mr. Pike was one of the most fearless and em- 
phatic supporters of the Government in the halls of Congress. 
Every measure for the raising of men and money had his earnest 
support and advocacy. Representing a maritime community, he was, 
on entering Congress, very properly placed on the Committee of 
Naval Affairs, of which he was a member during his entire term of 
service, and it- Chairman in the Fortieth Congress. Ee was prompt 
and regular in his attention to duty on this committee, and deeply 
interested in measures emanating from it. advocating them upon the 
floor with earnestness and force, lie lias manifested more interest in 
measures affecting the trade of the country than in those more purely 
political. Subjects of finance, of tariff, or revenue, coming up for 
the aetion of Congress, received his close attention, and frequently 
called him into discussions. Ee lias been particularly vigilant in his 
attention to subjects of especial concern to his constituents— the ship- 
pin- the lumbering, and the fishing interests. Ee was an early op- 
ponent of the Reciprocity Treaty with Great Britain, and labored 
with success for its repeal, believing that it operated unfavorably 
to the United States, and especially to the Stat,' of Maine. 

"When Congress became involved in the controversy with the Presi- 



4 FREDERICK A. PIKE. 

dent, Mr. Pike was among those who insisted most firmly upon the 
rights, privileges, and power of the legislative department of the Gov- 
ernment. When the House presented Articles of Impeachment against 
President Johnson, he gave them his earnest and active support. 

Mr. Pike's first speech in Congress was made in February, 1SG2. 
It was upon the Legal-Tender Bill ; and in connection with that mea- 
sure, criticized Gen. McGlellan's policy, and commended that of Secre- 
tary Stanton, who had just issued his famous " Mill Spring " address 
to the army. The speech closed as follows : 

" The next sixty days are to he the opportunity for the nation 
to re-assert itself. In them, past blunders can be remedied, and the 
memory of inefficiency be lost in the brilliancy of triumph. I have 
all faith in the war, when it shall move to the tones of our new 
Secretary. It has already done much to enlighten our people as 
to the destiny of the Republic. Civilians in high station and officers 
of leading rank have been converted by it to sound doctrines of 
political action. It is the measure of our civilization and Christianity. 
In its grand march in the future, it shall carry with it, like a torrent, 
the sophisms and theories of vicious political organizations ; and pres- 
ently clearing itself of all entanglements, it will make plain to the 
world that this is a contest of ideas. It will try aspirants for the 
leadership ; and when one fails, another shall supply his place ; until, in 
God's own time, the appointed Joshua shall be found who shall lead 
us into the promised land of peace and liberty. 

"Our duty to-day is to tax and fight — twin brothers of great 
power; to them, in good time, shall be added a third; whether he 
shall be of executive parentage or generated in Congress, or spring, 
like Minerva, full-grown from the head of our army, I care not. 
Come he will, and his name shall be Emancipation. And these 
three — tax, fight, emancipate — shall be the trinity of our salvation. 
In this sign we shall conquer." 

This was the first announcement in Congress of the necessity of 
Emancipation to the success of the war. Gurowski says in his 
"Diary" that it was the keynote of the Thirty -seventh Congress. 
078 



FREDERICK A. PIKE. ;, 

Mr. Pike voted with the ultra anti-slavery men on all occasions; 
and when the great anti-slavery amendment to the Constitution was 
pending, in January, 1865, he .-aid : 

"When, something more than a quarter of a century ago, just 
commencing active life, I made myself conspicuous in a limited sphere 
by attacking Slavery, I had no expectation of taking pari here and 
now in the grand consummation of its utter demolition." 

After arguing the constitutional points, he closed : " Lot the amend 
moiit be adopted, and slavery be destroyed, and hereafter the onlj 
contest, upon the subject will be, Who did the most to bring about 
this consummation so devoutly wished for by all good men. The 
earlier anti-slavery men shall have their full meed of praise. They 
di«l well. They brought the wrongs inherent in the institution to 
the attention of the people of the country. They would not be 
put down at the bidding of the imperious advocates of the system. 
Bui slavery flourished under their attacks. It grew rich ami strong. 
Lt waxed fat. How long it would have lived, God only knows, if it 
had not injured itself, lint it wa- not content. It destroyed itself. 
Our Davids were not powerful enough to inflict a mortal blow upon 
this modern Goliah, and Heaven would have it that the giant wrong 
of the age should commit suicide. 

" And when the genius of history shall write its epitaph on the walls 
of the great Hereafter, specifying the date of its death, short stay 
will it make in describing its virtues ; hut after cataloguing a por- 
tion of the great crime- it has committed against mankind, it will 
add, ' Dead ! dead ! not of Lloyd Garrison or Wendell Phillips, hut 
dead of Jefferson Davis and the Montgomery Constitution. 3 

"God speed the day of its burial, for with it. as creator, ends this war 
of its creation, and liberty and peace shall come hand in hand, and 
bless the continent with their presence/' 

Mr. Pike is happy in his domestic life, having married, in 1S40, 
Miss Mary II. Green, a lady of rare endowments of heart and mind. 
After the experience of a winter in the South, she wrote " Ida May," 
and some other novels, which were received by the public with great 



6 



FREDERICK A. PIKE. 



favor. Her mental activity and acquirements have been chiefly 
displayed, however, in a rare conversational talent, which makes her 
the charm of the social circle. 

In person, Mr. Pike is of medium height, of dark complexion, 
with black hair and eyes. lie is lively and entertaining in conver- 
sation, ardent in his friendships, and decided in his dislikes. Proud, 
sensitive, honorable, and truthful, he possesses all the elements of an 
original and independent character. 





^7^X 



BENJAMIN EGGLESTOISr. 



P 



(KN.IAMIX EGGLESTON, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, served ten years in the war of L812, as a Captain, 

/^ under General Winfield Scott. At the close of the war he 
devoted himself to agricultural pursuits in Saratoga County, New 
York, where lii- son, Benjamin Eggleston, the subject of this sketch, 
was bom, January •'!, 1816. In L831, the family emigrated to Ohio, 
and settled in Athens County. Remaining there one year, they re- 
moved t<> Hocking County, where the elder Eggleston continued to 
reside, an enterprising farmer, a respected citizen, and a consistenl 
member of the Baptist Church until his death, in L855. 

Soon after settling in the wilds of Hocking County, Mr. Eugleston 
and his sons took a contract tor making rails at thirty-one cents per 
hundred. When this work was completed, the subject of this sketch, 
in company with his brother, walked fifty-four miles to the Ohio 
Canal, six miles below Chillicothe, and worked on " Arthington's job " 
at thirteen dollars per month. The next summer, notwithstanding 
the kind admonition of his father that a "rolling stone gathers no 
moss," he joined the caravan of Gregory and Co., and was assigned 
to the duty of driving one of the cages, containing the " White Bear.'' 
The caravan traveled over nearly all the State, and arrived in Cleve- 
land about the first of October. The Menagerie being now destined 
for Philadelphia for winter quarters, he determined to accompany it 
no further. 

Inclined toward commercial life by what he observed among the 
lioats and shipping in the harbor of Cleveland, he determined to de- 
vote himself to canal-boating. Whereupon, lie hired to Capt, Gear 



2 BENJAMIN EGGLESTON. 

of the canal boat Oneida, with whom lie made three trips to Fulton, 
Stark County, for wheat, when the boat was laid up, and the crew dis- 
charged. Nothing daunted in his determination to prosecute his 
new. business, he hired to service on the boat Oswego, commanded by 
Captain Hitter of Obillicothe, and made one trip to Massillon, and re- 
turned. The Captain was taken sick, and died at Cleveland, kindly 
attended by Mr. Eggleston to the last. He then hired to Captain 
Warren of the canal boat A urora, and made one trip to Newark, 
where the beat was laid up, and the crew discharged. Persevering 
amid all discouragements in his new pursuit, Mr. Eggleston next 
hired to Capt. Hull of the Miami, on which he continued until 
it reached New Baltimore, where he left, and reached home the first 
of December. He had saved about eighty dollars, his father ac- 
knowledging that his predictions concerning the " rolling stone" 
had not been verified. In the spring, Mr. Eggleston returned to 
Cleveland under a previous engagement with Captain Warren, with 
whom he remained until the following August, when the proprietors 
of the Ohio Troy and Erie line having noticed his ability, faithful- 
ness, and industry, promoted him to the command of the boat Mon- 
ticello. He continued aboard this boat till the close of the season, 
and the next year was tendered his choice of all the boats of that 
line. The next spring, the proprietors made him their general agent 
to buy produce in Southern Ohio, and to superintend their boats. 
He continued in their service until 1845, when he bought an interest 
in one-half the boats of the line, and took them to the new canal for 
operation under his sole control. He made his residence in Cincin- 
nati, and established the first successful line of boats from that city to 
Toledo. After running the boats two years in company with the 
original proprietors, he purchased their interest, and took his brother 
as a partner. 

In 1851, he sold out his entire interest in the canal line to his brother, 
and formed partnership with James Wilson, a wealthy commission 
merchant of Cincinnati, under the style of "Wilson, Eggleston & 

Co.," one of the largest and most successful business firms in the West. 
280 



BENJAMIN EGGLESTON. 3 

Mr. Eggleston took an early interest in themunicipal affairs of the 
city, and in 1853 was chosen a member of the City Council. He held 
the positions of President of the City Council, and Chairman of the 
Financial Committee. He has taken an active interest in all the 
public improvements of the city. The citizens of Cincinnati highly 
appreciated and acknowledged hi- services in devising a plan to save 
them from an impending calamity caused by the short supply of fuel 
in 1857. 

At the breaking out of the rebellion, large numbers of volunteers 
had entered the army, leaving their families destitute in Cincinnati. 
In 1861, Mr. Eggleston introducedin the City Council a resolution pro- 
viding for the distribution from thecitj treasury of $90, lamongthe 

needy families of soldiers. He personally superintended the distribu- 
tion of this fund weekly, to the worthy recipients of the relief. 

In 1861, Mr. Eggleston was elected a State Senator for the County oi 
Hamilton. He was a member of the Chicago Convention which nom- 
inated Mr. I. in. -"In in I860, and was one of the Presidential Elec- 
tors of that year. 

In isr,4. Mr. Eggleston was elected a Representative from Ohio 
in the Thirty-ninth Congress, and was re-elected in 1866 to the For- 
tieth Congress. In < >ctober, 1868, he was a candidate for re-election. 
After a canvass of extraordinary excitement, the official returns indi- 
cated his defeat by a majority of two linn. lie, 1 and eleven votes. 
Evidences of fraud were so numerous as, in the opinion of his friends, 
to render it the duty of Mr. Eggleston to contest the seat. 

In Congress, Mr. Eggleston has been particularly active in promot- 
ing the improvement of Western rivers and harbors. He has labored 
in behalf of those important interests not only by vote and speech on 
the floor of the House, but by his efforts in the Committee of Com- 
merce, of which he is a member. He has not limited his Congres- 
sional labors for the promotion of measures for the advantage of his 
own city alone. Chicago, St. Louis, and other Western cities have 
shared in the benefits of important measures proposed by him. 



■i BENJAMIN EGGLESTON. 

The following extract from a speech on the bill authorizing a 
railroad bridge over the Ohio River at Paducah, bespeaks the liberal 
and patriotic views by which he is actuated : 

" The bill provides that it shall be fifty feet above high-water 
mark. "What further guarantee do you want against obstruction ? 
I would not vote for a measure to obstruct the Ohio River, or any 
other navigable river of the United States. It is true, it will be a 
little inconvenient to the steamboat men ; but when we look at the 
great interest of the Southern trade, as well as the great commercial 
interest of the whole country, we must expect that one class of the 
community will have to forego a convenience to accommodate 
another. I say to Kentucky, that we reach out our hand to meet 
you with a bridge anywhere where your capitalists propose to build 
it. We want your trade. If we had had more intercourse with the 
other side years ago, we might have saved many precious lives. If 
you wish to build a bridge to reach over into the State of Ohio, 
Indiana, or Illinois, that will be no more obstruction than I am satis- 
fied this will be, I will vote for it. 

"I hope that no gentleman upon this side of the House will vote 
against this proposition upon political grounds. The interests of the 
State of Kentucky ought to receive the same consideration that the 
interests of every other State receive, and when they ask for a bridge 
at Paducah. to he just like the one at Quincy, Illinois, and when 
they propose to build it with their own capital, and tell us that they 
are going to connect their system of railroads witli ours, I say, give it 
to them. "We have given the same privilege to the States of Illinois, 
Virginia, and Ohio; and I say, let us give it to Kentucky. Let us 
say to the people of Paducah, you shall have a chance to cross over 
into Illinois by a bridge, and we will not guard it with bayonets 
cither ; ami we hope and trust you never will guard the bridge at 
your end in that way ; we want to connect our commercial interests 
with yours, and go hand in hand with you. I hope that gentlemen 
upon this side of the House will vote for this bill." 

283 





\ £ts, ■ ^ 



/7 



C 



GLEXX1 W. SOOFIELD. 



i-LENNI W. SCOFIELD was born in Chautauqua County. 
New York, Man-h 11, L817. In early life he had such 
educational advantages as are usually furnished in the com- 
mon schools. When about fourteen years of age, he quit school to 
learn printing, and worked at this trade about three years. At 
seventeen he went hack to his books, and entered upon a course of 
classical study. In the fall of 1836, he entered Hamilton Col- 
lege, New York, as a Freshman, and graduated from this institu- 
tion, with fair rank of scholarship, in 1840. The two years immedi- 
ately following his graduation, he spent in teaching; the first in 
Fauquier County, Virginia, and the second in McKean County, Penn- 
sylvania. While teaching, he studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar in 1842, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession 
at Warren. Pennsylvania, where he lias ever since resided. 

Except when interrupted by several terms of service in the State 
Legislature and the National Congress, his whole time has been de- 
voted to his profession. In 1849, he was elected to the Legislature of 
liis State, and re-elected in 1850. While a member of this body, he 
was esteemed one of its most effective debaters, and was chairman of 
the Judiciary Committee. His speech on the elective judiciary was 
quite widely circulated at the time, and attracted considerable attention 
throughout the State. Although during this term of service in the 
Legislature he acted with the Democratic party, as he did some years 
subsequently, he was always an anti-slavery man. During his college 
life he was a member of an Abolition society formed by a number of 
283 



2 GLENNI W. SCOFIELD. 

young men in the Institution, and never relinquished his early con- 
victions in hostility to slavery. In accordance with these convictions, 
and while still acting with the Democratic party, he advocated the 
Wilmi it Pri iviso, opposed the Fugitive Slave Law, and the repeal of the 
Missonri Compromise, taking the anti-slavery side of all kindred 
questions. 

When the Republican party was formed in 1856, he immediately 
severed his old party connections, and in a public address united 
his political fortunes with the new party of freedom and progress. 
In the fall of that year he was nominated by the Republicans for 
the State Senate : and in a district before largely Democratic, was 
elected by a majority of twelve hundred. He occupied this position 
three years, and ably sustained the reputation which he had gained 
as a debater in the lower branch of the Legislature. "While in the 
Senate he introduced and advocated bills to exempt the homestead 
from sale tor debt, and to abrogate tin- laws excluding witnesses from 
testifying on account of religious belief. Xeither of these bills passed ; 
but Hr. Scofield's speeches in their favor, which were reported and 
printed, prove that they should have passed. His bills were voted 
down, but his arguments were not answered. lie was more success 
ful in hi- eff< irts to procure State aid for the construction of the Phila- 
delphia and Erie Pailroad. This aid secured the construction of a 
line of road which has already worked wonders in the development 
of that large and previously wild and neglected section of the State 
in which he resided. For a short time in 1861, he was President 
Judge of the District composed of the Counties of Mercer, Venango, 
Clarion, and Jefferson, having been appointed by Governor Curtin to 
fill a vacancy. 

In 1S62. he was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and re- 
elected to the Thirty-ninth. Fortieth, and Forty-first. During his 
term of Congressional service, he has uniformly acted with the Radi- 
cal Republicans. As a debater. Mr. Scofield has been much admired 
for his analytical, terse, and logical style. Without striving to be 
amusing, he not nnfrequently enliven- his argument by pungent 

284 



G LENNI W. SCOFIELD. 3 

satire and humorous illustrations; but the general character of lii's 
efforts is that of clear statement and close reasoning. He seems to 
aim only at conviction. The following extract from a speech deliv- 
ered in reply to Mr. Brooks of New York, in January, 1865, in the 
House of Representatives, i- a fair specimen of hi- style of address 
and power of discussion : 

" [thasbeen often said of late thai history repeats itself. < >f course, 
it cannot lie literally true; but the gentleman reiterates it. and then 
proceeds to search for the prototype of the terrible drama now being 
enacted on this continent, and affects to tind it in the Revolution of 
177i>. Having settled this poinl to his own satisfaction, he proceeds 
to assign to the living actors their historic parts. The rebels take 
the position of the colonial revolutionists; the Government of the 
United States re-enacts the part of George III. and his Ministers ; 
while for himself and the Opposition debaters of this House, he se- 
lects the honorable role of Chatham, Fox, Burke, and other cham- 
pions of colonial rights in the British Parliament. Lei u- examine 
this. It is true that the colonists rebelled against the Government 
of Great Britain, and the slaveholders rebelled against the Govern- 
ment of the United State-: but her.' the likeness ends. Between 
the circumstances that might provoke or justify rebellion in the two 
cases, there is no resemblance. The Government from which the col- 
onies separated was three thousand mile- beyond the seas. They 
could not even communicate with it in those days in less than two or 
three months. In that Government they had no representation, and 
their want- and wishes no authoritative voice. Nor was it the form 
of government most acceptable to the colonists. They preferred a 
republic. The rapidly-increasing population and the geographical 
extent and position of the colonies, demanded nationality. Sooner 
or later it must come. The tea tax and other trifling grievances only 
hurried on an event that was sure to occur from the influences of 
geography and population alone. How is it in these respects with the 
present rebellion? The Government against which the slaveholders 
rebelled was not a foreign one ; it was as much theirs as ours. They 

285 



4 G LEX XI W. SCOFIELD. 

were fully represented in it. There was scarcely a law — indeed I 
think there was not a single law upon the statute-book, to which they 
had not given their assent. It was the Government they helped to 
make, and it was made as they wanted it. They had ever had their 
share of control and patronage in it. and more than their share, for 
they boasted with much truth that cotton was king. Nor is there 
any geographical reasons in their favor. It is conceded even by the 
rebels themselves that a division of the territory lying compactly 
between the Lakes and the Gulf, the Atlantic and the Mississippi, into 
two nations would be a great misfortune to both. If it were the Pa- 
cific States demanding separation, bad as that would lie. there would 
In' some sense in it ; but fur this territory, you cannot even find a 
dividing line. When you attempt to run one, the rivers and moun- 
tains cross your purpose. Both the land and the water oppose divi- 
sion. There is no disunion outside the wicked hearts of these dis- 
loyal men. I can see no resemblance, then, between our patriot 
fathers, who toiled through a seven years' war to establish this bene- 
ficeni Government, and the traitors who drench the land in blood in 
an attempt — I trust in God a vain one — to destroy it. 

'•Again, sir, in what respect do the apologists of the present rebel- 
lion in this House resemble the advocates of our great Revolution in 
the British Parliament ] Conceding they are their equals in states- 
manship, learning, eloquence, and wit. I submit that they fall far 
helow them in the merit of their respective causes. Chatham de- 
fended the cause of the colonists as set forth in the Declaration of 
Independence that 'all men arc created equal, endowed by their Cre- 
ator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness;' the honorable gentleman from New York 
pleads fur slavery, the aucti.ni block, the coffie, the lash. With slavery 
he cures all national troubles. He begs fir harmony among ourselves. 
How shall we he united ? ' Restore slavery,' saj-s he. He is opposed 
to war. How, then, shall rebels in arms be subdued '. 'Revive the 
traffic in blood.' He is opposed to taxes. How, then, shall our ex- 
hausted Treasury be replenished ? ' Raise more children for the mar- 



GLENNI W. BCOFIELD. 5 

ket.' Slavery, more slavery, still more slavery, is the only prescrip 
tion of the Opposition doctors. 

"There is another party that figures largely in the history of the 
revolutionary struggle that the gentleman entirely omitted to name. 
lie gave them no place in his easl of parts. The omission may be 
attributed to either modesty or forgetfulness. Prior to the Revolu- 
tion, the members of this party had filled all the places of honor and 
profit in the colonies ; and when the war came, they heartily esp 
the cause of the king, though they did not generally join bis armies. 
Their principal business was to magnify disaster, depreciate suc- 
cess, denounce the currency, complain of the taxes, and denounce 
and dodge arbitrary arrests. To the patriot cause they were ever 
prophets of evil. Failure was their word. The past was a failure, the 
future would he. In the beginning of the war this party was in the 
majority- in some of the colonies, and constituted a large minority 7 in 
all; hut as the war progressed, their numbers constantly diminished. 
Many of the leaders were from time to time sent beyond the " Lines," 
and their estates confiscated. Most of these settled in New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia, right handy to the place where the gentleman 
informs us he was horn. The members of this party were called 
Tories; and if this war is hut a repetition of the war of the revolu- 
tion, as the gentleman intimates, who are their present represen 
tatives I 

"Again exclaims the gentleman: 'You cannot subjugate eight 
million people. 1 I know not which most to condemn in this ex- 
pression (I speak it of course without personal application), its in- 
sinuation of falsehood or its confession of cowardice. The United 
States does not propose to subjugate any portion of its people, but 
only to exact obedience to law from all. It is this misrepresentation 
of the purpose of the Government that still keeps alive the dying 
flames of the rebellion. I can go further with perfect truth, and say- 
it was this misrepresentation that lighted those flames at the first. 
The slaveholders were told that it was the purpose of this Adminis- 
tration to destroy their psrsonal and politic d rights ; next, they were 



6 GLENNIW. SCO FIELD. 

reminded that they were proud, brave, chivalric men, and then taunt- 
ingly asked if they were going to submit. They were thus fairly 
coaxed and goaded into rebellion. Except for this misrepresentation, 
the Union people would have been in a large majority in all the 
slave States ; and despite it, they are in a majority in more then half 
of them to-day, if they could be heard. But they are gagged, bound 
hand and foot, by a despotism so cruel and so mean, so thorough and 
so efficient, that even the gentleman from New York has no fault to 
find with it. The country is too much engaged now with the im- 
mediate actors in the drama, to look behind the scenes for the authors 
and prompters of the play. But when these actors have disappeared 
from the stage, gone down to graves never to be honored, or wander- 
ing among strangers never to be loved ; in the peaceful future, when 
incpiisition shall be made for the contrivers, instigators, aiders, and 
abettors of this great crime, the two classes so often coupled in de- 
nunciation in this hall, the Abolitionists of the North and the fire- 
caters of the South, will be scarcely noticed ; but the quiet historian 
will ' point his slow, unmoving linger' at those Northern leaders, who 
fir fifteen years have deceived tlic South and betrayed the North. 
They will stand alone. The large minority that now gathers around 
them, moved thereto more in hopes to escape the severe hardships of 
the war. than from any love of theni or their position, will have melted 
away fr< mi their support like dissolving ice beneath their feet ; and well 
will it be for their posterity if they can manage then, like Byron's 
wrecks, to sink into the 

' Depths with bubbling groan, 
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.' 

" Subjugate the South ! No, sir. It is the purpose as it is the duty 
of the Government to liberate the South, to drive out the usurpers, 
and to restore to the deluded and betrayed masses the blessings ot 
a free Republic." 

288 



RUFUS P. SPALDING. 




JftSK MONG the older members of the Fortieth Congress, and 
one who retains the physical and intellectual vigor of 
middle age, is Rufus Paine Spalding, of Cleveland, Ohio, 
who has, for six consecutive years, represented the Eighteenth Con- 
gressional District of that State. 

lie was born on the 3d dayof May, IT'. 1 -, at West Tisbury, on the 
Islam! of Martha's Vineyard, in the State of Massachusetts, -where 
his father, Dr. Kufus Spalding, resided and practiced medicine for 
twenty years. He traces back hi- ancestry two hundred and twenty 
eight years in a direct line to Edward Spalding, who was •'made a 
Freeman " at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1640. Benjamin Spalding, 
the son of Edward, migrated to Connecticut about the year 1665, 
and settled in the town of Plainfield, in the County of Windham. 
Dr. Rufus Spalding, the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
the great grandson of Benjamin Spalding, who thus settled in Con- 
necticut. 

In the spring of the year 1812, Dr. Spalding returned with his 
family to Connecticut, and took up his abode in the city of Norwich. 
After the usual preparatory studies, his son Rufus P. Spalding en- 
tered Yale College; and in the autumn of 1S17, received from that 
institution the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Among the members 
of his class in college were Rt. Rev. Wm; II. De Lahcy, Bishop of 
Western New York; Dr. Nathan R. Smith, of Baltimore; Prof. 
Lyman Coleman, of Easton, Pa. ; Hon. Charles J. McCurdy, at one 
time Minister to Austria, and now a Judge of the Supreme Court 
of Connecticut ; Hon. Thomas B. Osborne, and Hon. Thomas T. 
Whittlesey, ex-members of Congress from Connecticut; Sam'l H. Per 
19 289 



2 RUFUS P. SPALDING. 

kins and Joel Jones, Esquires, eminent lawyers of Philadelphia; J. 
Prescott Hall. Esq., I'. S. District Attorney for New York, and 
others who also became distinguished for usefulness in life. 

Immediately on leaving college. Mr. Spalding commenced the 
study of the law with Hon. Zephaniah Swift, the learned author of 
the "Digest," who was then Chief-Justice of Connecticut. 

After reading the usual time, and receiving from his instructor the 
most flattering testimonials of his qualifications, he. like very many 
of the energetic young men of New England, made, hi- way to the 
"West; and after encountering various fortunes incident to a frontier 
settlement, lie foun 1 himself, in December, 1819, at the old - Posl of 
Arkansas," and shortly afterwards at "Little Rock," in the practice 
of law, in co-partnership with Samuel Dinsmoor, Esq., since Governor 
of New Hampshire. 

He remained in this new Territory until June, 1821, when he 
retraced his steps eastward, and was finally induced to throw out his 
sign as an - Attorney at Law " in the pleasant village of Warren, the 
'shire town of Trumbull County, Ohio. 

In October, 1822, he was married to Lucretia A. Swift, the elde.-t 
daughter of the gentleman with whom he had studied his profession. 
Seven children, three sons and four daughters, were the offspring of 
this marriage, only three of whom now survive. They are ( !ol. Zeph. 
S. Spalding, now United State- Consul at Honolulu, lit. Captain 
George S. Spalding, First Lieutenant 33d U. S. Infantry, and Mrs. 
Lucretia Mcllrath, the wife of Charles M.dlrath, Esq., of St. Paul, 
Minnesota. In January, 1S50, Judge Spalding was married to his 
present wife, the eldest daughter of DrAVm. S. Pierson, of Windsor, 
Conn. 

After a residence of more than sixteen years in Warren, Mr. 
Spalding removed to Ravenna, in the County of Portage. In the 
fall of 1S39, he was chosen by a majority of one vote over his op- 
ponent, to represent the people of Portage County in the General 
Assembly of Ohio. The Legislature, mainly through the active 
exertions of Mr. Spalding, passed an act at this session, erecting the 



RUFUS P. SPALDING 3 

new County of Summit, of which he soon became an inhabitant by 
transferring bis residence to Akron, the county seat. 

In 1841-2, he was again a member of the Legislature, as a repre- 
sentative froiii the new county. At this time he was chosen Sp 
of the House, and became justly popular as an able and successful 
presiding officer. In conjunction with the late Governor John 
Brough, then Auditor of State, he took strong ground against the 
effort, then being made, to repudiate the public debl of Ohio, and, 
by his- personal influence, did much to prevent the disastrous con- 
sequences which must always attach to such iicrnici.ni- legislation. 

In the winter of L848-9, Mr. Spalding was elected, by joint vote 
of the two Eousesof the General Assembly, a Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Ohio, for the constitutional term of seven years, of which 
he served, however, bill three years, as the new Constitution, then 
adopted, re-organized the Judiciary, and Judge Spalding declined 
being a candidate in the popular canvass that followed. 

The following extract from a letter written to the author, by Hon. 
William Lawrence, M. C, who was the Reporter of the decisions of 
the Supreme Court of Ohio during all the time Judge Spaldingwas 
upon the Bench, will serve to show his qualifications for that high 
trust: 

'■The judicial services of Judge Spalding commenced March 7, 
L849, and ended February 1. 1852. He brought to the exalted 
position the force of a vigorous and cultivated intellect, imbued 
with a profound knowledge of the law. and enriched with classical 
attainments of no ordinary character. His opinions will be found in 
volumes IS, 19, and 20 of the Ohio Reports ; and it is, at least, no dis- 
paragement to others to say, that Judge Spalding has never had a 
superior on the Bench of the State. His opinions are remarkable 
specimens of judicial literature, distinguished for the force of their 
logic, their terse, clear, emphatic style, and a precision of expression 
unsurpassed even by the learned English judges whose decisions are 
found in the celebrated Reports of Durnford and East. 

" The generous nature and urbane deportment of Judge Spalding 



4 RUFUS P. SPALDING. 

was such that lie enjoyed the profound respect and esteem of the 
Bar, and all with whom he was associated, as the writer of this has 
abundant means of knowing." 

On retiring from the Bench, Judge Spalding removed to the city of 
Cleveland, where he at once entered upon a lucrative business in the 
practice of his profession. As an advocate ami counselor he main- 
tained the highest rank in his State. 

In politics, the Judge was an active and devoted member of the 
Democratic party, from the days of Andrew Jackson until the 
passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, when he threw all his 
energy and influence into the ranks of the " Free-Soil " or. " Anti- 
Slavery " party. 

He was a member of the Convention at Pittsburg, in February, 
1S52 ; and it was on his motion that John P. Hale was nominated for 
the Presidency. He was again a member of the Pittsburg Conven- 
tion of 1850, which originated the Republican party; and he was, 
the same year, one of the delegates at large from the State of Ohio, 
to the National Convention in Philadelphia, which nominated John 
C. Fremont. In May, 1S68, he was a delegate to the Convention in 
Chicago, which nominated General TJ. S. Grant for President. 

In October, LS62, Judge Spalding was chosen to represent the 
Eighteenth Congressional District, made up of the Counties of Cuya- 
hoga, Lake, and Summit, in the Congress of the United States. 
He was re-elected in October, 1864, and again in October, 1SGG, 
so that he served in the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth 
Congresses. In the spring of 1868, he addressed a letter to his con- 
stituents, declining to be again a candidate. 

In the Thirty-eighth Congress he was a member of the Standing 
Committee on Naval Affairs, the Committee on Revolutionary Pen- 
sions, and served as Chairman on the Select Committee on the Bank- 
rupt Law. 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress he was made a member of the Stand- 
ing Committee on Appropriations, and continued to serve on the Com- 
mittee on Bankruptcy, of which Mr. Jenckcs was then Chairman. 
292 



RUFUS P. SPALDING. y 

Soon after the opening of the first session of this Congress, Mr. 
Spalding made a speech in which he indicated the measures which 
In regarded as necessary to be adopted in order to reconstruct the 
rebel States. The su<j ben made were for the most part 

afterwards adopted by Congress. The military features of the 
Reconstruction Art- originated in an amendment offered by Mr. 
Spalding to Mr. Stevens' first bill. 

In the Fortieth Congress he was placed on the Committee on 
Appropriations, the Committee on the Kc\ ision of the Laws of the 
United States, and upon the Joint Committee on the Library of 
Congress . He took an important part in the investigation and dis- 
cussion of the financial questions which enlisted the attention of this 
Congress. In May, IS68, he delivered in the House of Representa- 
tives a speech on •■The Political and Financial Condition of the 
Country," from which we make an extract from his able argument, 
showing the unconstitutionality of Legal Tenders: 

"It is my purpose to show that this cherished plan of paying off 
the interest-bearing bonds of the Government with the United States 
'legal-tender' notes, has no warrant in the Constitution of the United 
States, in the act of Congress of February 25, L862, which first 
authorized their issue; neither is it justified by the plainest prim 
of political economy, or the soundest precepts of common sense. 

" In the first place. I meet the whole question ' without gh >ves,' and 
affirm that there exists no constitutional power in the Congress of the 
United State- to make paper money a ' legal tender" in payment of 
debts. I admit that under the pressure of extreme necessity, and in 
order to save the life of the nation. Congress did, in the darkest hours 
of the rebellion, assume the right to impress on a limited amount of 
Treasury notes the quality of a 'legal tender.' And I admit that 
this extreme measure was justified by the extraordinary circumstances 
under which it was adopted, and that, under like circumstances, 1 
should not hesitate to repeat the experiment ; but I can yield nothing 
further. A measure of national defense under the weighty pressure 
of war that brings a strain upon the Constitution of the country, is 



C RUFUS P. SPALDING. 

not to be continued, much less extended, as ;i principle of financial 
policy in times of peace, without seriously endangering the whole 
framework of our Government. 

" The wise men who, in 1181, constructed the great charter of our 
national rights, had experimental knowledge of the pernicious ten- 
dencies of an irredeemable paper currency ; for in the year 17S0, paper 
money issued to carry on the war of the Revolution had depreciated 
to such an extent that in the city of Philadelphia it was sold a hundred 
dollars in paper for one in silver. Hence it will he found that in 
framing the Constitution, they sought in every possible way to guard 
against the evils incident to a circulating medium made up of 'paper 
promises.' '" 

After citing the debates in the Convention which formed the Con- 
stitution, and the authority of its ablest expounders, Mr. Spaldin°- 
remarked : 

" It was reserved for the Thirty-seventh Congress of the United 
States to assert and exert a power, so obviously opposed to the wishes 
of the framers of the Constitution, to the letter and spirit of the instru- 
ment itself, and to its practical construction for three-fourths of a 
century. lint it was exerted in the darkest hour of the nation's 
conflict with treason ami rebellion. It was exerted <.<■ necessitate, to 
save the life of our glorious Republic. " :: ' * '"" 

"Mr Chairman, I now solemnly aver that if I had been a member 
of the Thirty-seventh Congress, I would have voted under the pressure 
of circumstances for the passage of the act entitled ''An act to au- 
thorize the issue of United States notes, and for the redemption or 
funding , thereof, and for the funding of the floating debt of the 
United States,*' approved February 25, 18G2. And I affirm just as 
solemnly, that at no time sinco the surrender of Lee's army would I 
have felt justified in repeating that vote." 

Mr. Spalding's career in Congress has been that of a wise and 

patriotic legislator, eminently useful to the country, and highly 

honorable to himself. His name is associated with all the important 

legislation relative to the war of the rebellion and its results. 
294 




^/^ A^t ,. J 4/i^rb~->~~-- / £ 



JOHX M. BBOOUALL. 




[HE ancestors of the subject of this sketch were Quakers, 
who emigrated from England among the early settlers of 
Pennsylvania. John M. Broomall was born in Upper 
Chichester, Delaware Comity, Pa., Jannaiy 19, L816. He received 
a classical and mathematical education in the select schools of the 
Society of Friends. 

Mr. Broomall studied law, and practiced in his native county with 
success for twenty years. In politics he was in early life a Whig, 
and cast his first presidential vote, in IS40, for General Harrison. 

Embracing the anti-slavery principles of the Society in which he 
was born, he opposed at the polls, in L V -'N. the adoption of the new 
constitution of Pennsylvania, which disfranchised the blacks. His 
subsequent votes, whether as a citizen or a Representative, have all 
been consistent with the one gn in on thai occasion. 

In 1851 and 1852, he served as a Repi'esentative in the Legi 
ture of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the State Revenue 
Board in 1S5I. Two years later he attached himself to the Republi- 
can party. In 1860, he was a delegate to the Convention which 
nominated Abraham Lincoln, and was chosen a Presidential Elector 
in the election which followed. 

In 1862, he was elected a Representative in Congress from the 
Seventh Pennsylvania District. In 1864, and in 1866, he was re- 
elected. In 1SGS, he declined to be again a candidate, on account 
of the state of his health, and the condition of his private affairs. 

He served on the Committees of Accounts and Public Expendi- 
tures, of the first of which he was Chairman during the Fortieth 



2 JOHN M. BEOOMALL. 

Cono-vess. During his entire Congressional service, Mr. Broomall 
has been counted among the extreme Kadicals. Upon financial 
questions he always opposed the expansion of the currency, and ad- 
vocated contraction as a means to the resumption of specie payments. 

During Mr. Broomall's service in Congress he made a number of 
able and important speeches. On the 18th of March, 1868, he ad- 
dressed the House on " The power and duty of the United States to 
guarantee to every State a republican form of government."' In the 
course of this speech, he remarked : 

" If the majority may lawfully disfranchise the minority on ac- 
count of race or lineage, then may the citizens of South Carolina of 
African descent limit the elective franchise to themselves, to the 
exclusion of their white fellow-citizens. If in the form of govern- 
ment now being constituted there, such a limitation should be placed, 
who in this Hall or in the country would maintain that the Govern- 
ment is republican \ Not a single vote could be obtained in either 
House of Congress for the admission of a State with such a constitu- 
tion. Now, if it is not republican in South Carolina, where black 
men are in the majority, to limit the suffrage to black men, witli 
what consistency shall we maintain that it is republican in Ohio, 
where white men are in the majority, to limit the suffrage to white 
men ? Let us beware how we advocate the doctrine that the mini d ty 
may be lawfully disfranchised on account of lineage, lest that doctrine 
be turned against ourselves, and lest for very shame we be obliged 
to submit." 

Further on he said : " But I am told that this right to disfranchise 
on account of race is not the absolute right of the majority ; that its 
operation is limited to the black race ; that this is a white man's 
Government ; that all white men of all races have equal rights, and 
that black men and red men have no rights whatever except by the 
grace and favor of the white men. 

'• The title of the white man to the country, at least as against the 
red man, will not bear very nice inspection. It has at best no higher 
foundation than that of present occupancy; and if wo rest it upon 



JOHN M. BROOMALL. 3 

present occupancy j it is certainly no better than thai of the Mark 
man. If cultivating, if defending the soil, mingling with it one's 

sweat and bl I, gives title to it, then indeed is the black man's right 

quite as g 1 as ours. 

■■ Lei me inquire at what period of onr country's history the Gov- 
ernment became exclusively thai of the white man I The aegro has 
always owed allegiance to it. He has always been capable of com- 
mitting treason againsl it. He has always been subject to its laws, 
ffis property has always been taxed for its support. He foughl for 
its establishment. He foughl for its preservation during the recent 
dark and bloody period, and that, too, when those who deny him all 
participation in it were seeking or conniving al it- overthrow. 

•• Besides all this, the negro aided in the formation of our present 
•more perfect Union.' He was a voter in all or nearly all the States 
at the time. His representatives, as well a- ours, said for him, as 
well as for us: ' "We, the people of the United States," ordain and 
establish this Constitution.' It is strange, indeed, if the Government 
is not the Government of all who created it. who are subject to its 
laws, who owe it allegiance, and more than all, who can be compelled 
to tight tor its preservation. 

■• During the earlier years of the war, when onr political opponents 
had at length reluctantly consented th it the rebellion should he put 
down if it could be done gently, and without hurting anybody, they 
opposed the arming of the Marks; they maintained truly that doing 
this would he acknowledging that the G - srnment is theirs as well 
as ours; but when the business became serious, when the draft came, 
they, as well as we, refused to exempt the black man. Now, I accept 
the Democratic doctrine. Nothing can he more sound than this 
proposition: none but white men should have been called upon to 
fight for a white man's government. Every Democrat who procured 
a black substitute, every one who was saved from the draft by the 
drafted black man, every American citizen who now enjoys the bless- 
ings of a preserved Government, i- estoppe 1 from claiming exclusive 
property in it as against those who fought to sustain it." 

397 



4 JOHN M. BROOM ALL. 

• In conclusion, Mr. Brooraall remarked : " Republicanism, though 
in strict accord with the best interests of the masses of men, has its 
foundation in far nobler considerations — the internal principles of 
truth and justice, the equality of man in the sight of his Maker. 
The little mind, proud always in proportion to its littleness, moving 
in its microscopic circle, wraps itself up in its petty bundle of selfish 
interests, and thinks that it, its household, its family, its race, con- 
stitutes the one sole end and aim of the Almighty's care. Such a 
mind rejects with scorn everything that dues not square with its own 
little measure. To it the parable of the good Samaritan is wholly 
unintelligible ; and if it dared, it would accuse the Author of that par- 
able of ' sickly sentimentality,' because lie taught that human rights 
and duties are not circumscribed by the boundaries of race or nation. 
To such a mind the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of man, 
first taught on the mountain in Judea, is as utterly meaningless as 
would be a dissertation on music to the deaf, or a description of the 
rainbow to the blind. 

"In conclusion, permit me to say, let there be no war of races in 
America ; and to guard against such a calamity, let every man accord 
to his neighbor that just share in the conducting of public affairs 
which he claims for himself. Above all, let us not load down the 
weak, the poor, and the ignorant with political disabilities. Surely 
we have advantages enough in the race of life which God has placed 
before us all, without making them bear the burden. Let all who are 
asked to obey the laws have an ecpial voice in making them. Let 
all the rivaling interests of humanity be equally represented in the 
common Government. Then will that great distinguishing charac- 
teristic of American society, the general diffusion of wealth and 
knowledge, be increased and perpetuated, making us an example of 
justice and prosperity to the world." 
298 



m 





SAMUEL SOOPEE. 



g|jAMUEL EOOPERwas bora on the 3d of February, 1 V "N 
3J3) a( Marblehead, a seaport town in Massachusetts, about 
\',i/ fifteen miles from Boston. The people of Marblehead at 
the time of Mr. Hooper's birth and early life there, were bold and hardy 
fishermen, largely engaged in the cod-fisheries on the banks of New 
foundland, and having considerable business relations and inter- 
course with theWest Indies, Russia, and Spain. They sent their 
fish to the West Indies for sale, and bought sugars with the proceeds, 
which they carried thence in their ships to Russia, bringing home in 
return iron, hemp, and other product? of that country. They also 
shipped large quantities of fish to Spain, and sold them there for 
doubloons, which they brought back to this country. Mr. Hooper's 
father was largely engaged in the European and West Indian trade; 
and. as his agent. Mr. Hooper in early life visited more than once 
Russia and the West Indies, and passed a whole season in Spain. 

In 1S33, he became a junior partner in the firm of Bryant, Stur- 
gis & Co., at that time one of the leading houses in Boston, con- 
ducting extensive enterprises on the Western coast of this Continent 
and in China, sending then- vessels to California (it was nearly 
twentv rears before the gold discoveries there) for hides, which wen/ 
then the great export of that cattle-grazing region, to the North- 
west coast for furs, and to China for teas and silks. In this firm 
Mr. Hooper continued for about ten years, and until its senior mem- 
bers, whose names it had long borne, and who had grown gray in 
honorable mercantile pursuits, wished to retire from active business. 
He then became a member of another large house engaged in the 
China trade, and remained in that business for many years. 

299 



2 SAMUEL HOOPER. 

During the period of his active business* life, however, foreign 
commerce did not alone engage or absorb his interests or his ener- 
gies, lie became, i ally interested in the development of our domes- 
tic resources, and embarked both time and capital in the iron busi- 
ness, to the understanding of which and of the true interests of this 
branch of industry in this country, he gave much attention. The 
subject of currency and finance early interested him, both as a theo 
retical question, and as a practical matter affecting the real pros- 
perity and substantial growth of the country. In the House of Rep- 
resentatives of the State of Massachusetts, in the year- 1851, '52 and 
"53, and subsequently in the State Senate of that State in 1858, he 
distinguished himself by the interest he took in the subject of bank- 
ing and finance, by the knowledge he displayed upon it, and by the 
judicious and thoughtful measures which he introduced to check the 
evils of our unstable currency, and to establish on an impregnable 
basis the banks then existing in Massachusetts under State charters. 
During this period he wrote and published two pamphlets on cur- 
rency or money and bank notes, which are full of sound thought and 
clear statement, and are remarkable for their broad, thorough, and 
comprehensive views of the whole subject. 

In the summer of 1861, he was elected from Boston to the Thirty- 
seventh Congress, to till a vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. 
William Appleton. Possessing at this time a commercial experience 
and knowledge, the result of extensive transactions in foreign com- 
merce for more than a quarter of a century with all parts of the 
globe, and of active, if les, extensive, operations at home, and a very 
clear and thorough understanding of that great mystery of finance 
and money as applied both to public and private affairs, the fruit of much 
study, reading, and sagacious and patient observation for an equally 
long period, and being thoroughly in sympathy with the Administra- 
tion, and earnest in devising the best means for enabling the Govern- 
ment to obtain the funds necessary for the prosecution of the war, on 
the one hand, and the people to bear the heavy burden it entailed on 
the ether, Mr. Hooper became at once a trusted adviser of the 



SAMUEL HOOPER. 

Treasury Department, and a most useful and indefatigable member 
of the Committee "J' Ways and Means of the House of Repreien 
tatives. 

An i Aii-art from a letter of Mr. < !hief-Justice Chase to the author, 
will serve to show his appreciation of Mr. Hooper's patriotism and 
public services during the critical period when Mr. Chase was S 

tary of the Treasury : 

" Washington, Jan. 3, L869 

"My impressions of Mr. Hooper, until April. L361,were derived 
almost wholly from the opinions of others. Thesi 
confidence in Ins sagacity, integrity; and patriotism. 

••I do not now n llect where our personal acquaintance com 

menced ; but it was, 1 think, not long before the 6th of April, 1861. 
I then advertised for proposals for a loan of §14,901,000 in in 
(coin) in exchange for Treasury aotes. The proposals were to be 
opened five days afterward, on the llth. 

'• This was at a time of great anxiety and depression. Before the 
,la\ for opening the proposals arrived, the expeditions for the rein- 
forcemenl of Pickens and the provisionment of Sumter had already 
sailed; and on that day, the correspondence between Beauregard, 
commanding the rebels, and Anderson, commanding the Fort, was 
going on, in reference to the surrender of Sumter. The next day 
the rebel batteries opened fire. 

•• Xo time could be more unpropitious to the negotiation of a loan. 
Yet the advertisement could not be withdrawn without serious injury 
to the public credit; and a failure to obtain the amount advertised 
for, -would have had, perhaps, at that particular juncture, a -till 
worse effect. 

'• Mr. Hooper happened to be in Washington, and was a subscriber 

for $100,000. On opening the proposals I found that the offers fell 

short of the amount required, by about a million of dollars. I sent 

for Mr. Hooper, then personally almost a stranger to me, and asked 

him to take that sum, in addition to what he had before subscribed, 

assuring him he should be protected from loss in the event of his 
£01 



4 SAMUEL HOOPER. 

being unable to distribute the amount in Boston. lie complied with 
my request without hesitation, and disposed of the whole amount 
without anv aid from the Treasury. His readiness to come to the 
aid of the Government at the critical moment, and the personal con- 
fidence he shared in me, made an impression on my mind which 
cannot be obliterated. The sum does not now seem large, but it was 
large then, and the responsibility was assumed when most men would 
have shrunk from it. 

" On another and even mure important occasion, my obligations to 
Mr. Hooper for support and co-operation, were still greater. 

" Very few months had passed, after I took charge of the Depart- 
ment, before I became fully satisfied that the best interests of the 
people, future as well as immediate, in peace as well as in war, de- 
manded a complete revolution in currency by the substitution of 
notes, uniform in form and in credit-value, issued under the authority 
of the nation, for notes varying in both respects issued under State 
authority, and I suggested to different financial gentlemen the plan 
cf a National Banking System. The suggestion was not received 
with favor, or anything like favor. 

li But my conviction of the necessity of some such measure, both 
to the successful management of the finances during the war, and to 
the prevention of disastrous convulsions mi the return of peace, was 
so strong, that I determined to bring the subject to the attention of 
< longress. 

" In my report on the finances submitted on the 9th of December, 
1S61, 1 therefore recommended the adoption of a National Banking 
System, upon principles and under restrictions explained partly in 
the report, and more fully in the Bill drawn up under my direct ion. 
and either sent to the Committee of "Ways and Mean-, or handed to 
one of its members — perhaps to Mr. Hooper himself. However the 
bill may have gone to the Committee, 1 am not mistaken, I think, in 
saying that Mr. Hooper was the only member who gave it any sup- 
port. I am pretty sure that the only favor shown it by the Conir 
mittee was a permission to Mr. Hooper to report it without recom- 

302 



SAMUEL HOOPER. 5 

mendation, on his own responsibility. Ee took that responsibility, 
and tlic Bill was reported and printed. 

" No action was asked upon it at thai session, [faction had been 
asked, it is not improbable that it would have been rejected with very 
few dissenting votes- so powerful then was the influenceof the State 
Banks, so reluctant were they to accept the new measure, and so strong 
was the general sentiment of the Members of Congress against it. 

"Before the nexl session, a strong public opinion, in favor of a 
uniform currency for the whole country, and of the National Bank- 
ing System as a mean- of accomplishing that object, had developed 
itself; and Mr. Eooper found himself able to carry the measure 
through the House of Representatives. It still encountered a for- 
midable opposition in the Senate, and I well remember the personal 
appeals I was obliged to make to Senators, as I had alread) to Rep 
resentatives, in order to overcome their objectio 

"The Bill found a powerful and judicious friend in Mr. Sherman, 
and at length passed by a clear vote. It was approved by Mr. Lin- 
coln, who had steadily supported it from the beginning, on the 25th 
i if I el.rnarv, 1803. 

••I think I cannot err in ascribing the success of the measure in the 
House to the sound judgment, persevering exertion-, and disinter- 
ested patriotism of Mr. Hooper. The results of the measure during 
the war fulfilled, and since the war have justified the expectations I 
formed. It received valuable amendments in both Houses of Congress 
before its enactment, and has since been further amended: and is, I 
think, still capable of beneficial modification in points of much im- 
portance to the public interests. 

"But this is not the place nor the occasion for a discussion of this 

matter; all that you desire is my estimate of the services of Mr. 

Hooper. I have mentioned only the two principal occasions on 

which I was specially indebted to him; but they were by no means 

the only occasions in which he aided me, or rather the Department 

of the Government of which I then had charge, both by personal 

counsel and by Congressional support. 
303 



C S A M U EL II OOr E R . 

"During the whole time I was at the head of the Treasury, I con- 
stantly felt the great benefit of his wise and energetic co-operation. 
It would be unjust, saying this of Mr. Hooper, not to say that there 
were others in and out of Congress, to whom in other financial rela- 
tions the Treasury Department and the country were very greatly 
indebted; but it is simple duty to add that the timely aid which he 
rendered at the crisis of the loan of April, 1861, and in promoting 
the enactment of the National hanking Law, placed me, charged as I 
was with a most responsible and difficult task, under special obliga- 
tions which I can never forget, and shall always take pleasure in 
acknowledging. 

'• With great respect, yours very truly, 

" S. P. Chase." 

In accepting a re-nomination for the third time in the autumn of 
1866, Mr. Hooper announced to his constituents his intention of 
retiring from Congress at the end of that term ; and in the spring of 
186S, he re-affirmed the same intention in a formal and decided 
letter to the people of his district, in which he thanked them most 
cordially for their continued support of him; but his constituents 
would take no refusal. They insisted upon his reconsidering the 
matter. He was unanimously nominated, and for the fifth time 
was elected to Congress after a sharp contest in a very close dis- 
trict, by a majority of nearly three thousand votes. 

More accustomed to writing than to public speaking, Mr. Hooper 
has not been in Congress a frequent or lengthy speaker ; but when- 
ever he has spoken, he has commanded the attention of the House. 
His speeches have all been distinguished by a thorough understand- 
ing of the subject matter, by vigorous and comprehensive thought, 
exact logic, and clear and forcible statements. They have been 
mostly on financial questions, and have attracted the attention and 
received the approval of the sound thinkers and of the public press 
both in this country and in Europe. 








syi^cC- 






WILLIAM LAWKE N ( ! I ■:. 



^-^'X the Congressional Library at "Washington is a "Historical 
Genealogy of the Lawrence family, from their first landing 
in this country, A.D. 1635, to July 4, 1858, by Thomas 
Lawrence, of Providence, Rhode [sland." The author of this work 
says: "The patronymic of our family is of great antiquity, hav- 
ing originated with the Latins. Several members of the family of 
Lawrence have held, and still hold, responsible and distinguished 
stations, as well in the church and civil service as in the army and 
navy of the British Empire; and many branches, also, have inter- 
married with the clergy and nobility. Sir Robert Lawrence accom- 
panied Richard Co3ur-de-Lion in his famous expedition to Palestine, 
where he signalized himself in the memorable siege of St. .lean 
d'Acre in 1119, by being the first to plant the banner of the cross on 
the battlements of that town, for which he received the honors of 
knighthood from King Richard, and also a coat of arms." In 1635, 
two brothers, and in 1G36, another brother of these English Lawrences, 
came to this country and settled on Long Island. These are the an- 
cestors of the Lawrences of the United States. 

Some of the descendants of these at an early day purchased a tract 
of land on the Delaware River, near Philadelphia. Embarking in 
commercial transactions, they lost their lauded estate. One of these 
married a French lady, and had a numerous offspring, among whom was 
David Lawrence, who died near Philadelphia, in 1S05, leaving several 
children with no estate. One of these was Joseph Lawrence, who, after 
learning the trade of a blacksmith, enlisted in the Philadelphia 

Guards, and served during the war of 1812, On the restoration of 
20 303 



2 WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 

peace lie removed to Ohio, where he married Temperance Gilchrist, 
a native of Virginia, a lady of exemplary piety and many virtues. 

Of these parents, the only surviving son is William Lawrence, who 
was born at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, June 26, 1S20. 
William was permitted to spend a portion of his early years in atten- 
dance on the country school ; but the intervals, which were nmnerous 
and prolonged, were occupied in assisting his father, who was pursu- 
ing the double avocation of farmer and mechanic. 

In the autumn of 1833, he was placed under the instruction of Rev. 
John C. Tidball, who had recently opened a classical seminary near 
Steubenville, Ohio. Under this gentleman, who was an accomplished 
scholar, he made rapid proficiency, and laid the foundation of a fine 
classical education. 

He remained a student in the Seminary until the spring of 1S19, 
when his father prociued for him the position of a merchant's clerk. 
In this pursuit he acquired business habits which have contributed 
largely to his success. 

1 oung Lawrence did not long remain a clerk in the village store. 
A brilliant display of forensic eloquence, which it was his good fortune 
to hear, turned his attention toward another profession, and he re- 
solved to become a lawyer. With difficulty the consent of his father 
was obtained to this change of plans. That he might lay a founda- 
tion sufficiently broad and deep for a superstructure of professional emi- 
nence, young Lawrence resolved to prosecute further his classical and 
literary education. He accordingly enrolled himself as a student in 
Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio, in the autumn of 1830. He 
accomplished the collegiate course in a very short time, and was grad- 
uated in the fall of 1838, with the highest honors of the institution. 

Mr. Lawrence immediately proceeded to Morgan County, Ohio, 
where he commenced the study of law under James L. Gage, Esq., 
then the oldest and ablest member of the McConnellsville bar. Dur- 
ing the following winter and the succeeding summer, he taught a dis- 
trict school. At the same time he pursued his study of the law, and 
acquired considerable local fame by the success with which he con- 



WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 3 

ductedcases before "tin.' dignitaries who presided on the township 
bench." 

In the autumn of 1839, Mr. Lawrence became a student of law in 
the Law Department of the Cincinnati College, where he enjoyed 
the instruction of Hon. Timothy Walker, author of the "Introduc- 
tion tn American Law." lie applied himself with great intensity 
tn his duties, devoting no less than sixteen hours each day to study, 
and the exercises of the lecture-room. He graduated with the de- 
gree nf L.B. in March, 1840; but not yet having reached ma- 
jority, he was compelled to defer making application for admission 
tu the bar. 

In the memorable political campaign of 1840, he engaged with 
ardor in advocating the election of Harrison to the Presidency. He 
spent the winter of 1840-41 at Columbus, in attendance on the Ohio 
Legislature, occupied in reporting its proceedings for the Ohio Stat< 
Journal. By strict attention to the rules and proceedings of that 
body, he acquired an accurate knowledge of the details of legislation, 
which has made him a skillful parliamentary tactician. 

In the summer of 1841, Mr. Lawrence located in Bellefontaine, 
Ohio, where he formed a professional partnership with Hon. Ben- 
jamin Stanton. He soon acquired reputation for great skill in the 
details of professional business, promptness in the discharge of his 
duties, and accuracy in his knowledge of the principles of law. 

In 1842, he was appointed Commissioner of Bankrupts for Logan 
County. In 1845, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Logan 
County, which office he resigned in 1S46, on being nominated as a 
candidate for representative in the legislature. He was proprietor of 
the Logan Gazette from March, 1845, to September, 1847, and was 
for several months editor of that paper. 

In 1S46, be was elected a member of the legislature, and was re- 
elected in the following year. In 1849, he was elected a member of 
the Ohio Senate for the term ending in 1S51. At the close of his 
Senatorial term he was elected, by the legislature, Reporter for the 
Supreme Court, and reported the twentieth volume of Ohio Reports. 



4 WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 

In 1852, be was on the Whig electoral ticket advocating the elec- 
tion of General Scott to the Presidency. In 1854 and 1855, he was 
again a member of the Senate of Ohio. As a member of the legis- 
lature in both its branches, Mr. Lawrence did great service to the 
State. He took a leading part in legislation as Chairman of the Ju- 
diciary Committee, of the Committee on Railroads and Turnpikes, 
on the Penitentiary and on Public Printing. At the session of 
1846-7, he introduced a bill to cpiiet land titles, which was contested 
at every session until it was adopted in 1S19. It was of vast impor- 
tance to the real-estate interests of Ohio, and is familiarly known as 
" Lawrence's Law." At the session of 1817-8, he took the lead, as 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, against legislative divorces, 
in a lengthy argument, report, and protest against their constitution- 
ality. The Supreme Court afterwards recognized this view ; and the 
Constitution of Ohio, adopted in 1851, prohibits the granting of di- 
vorces by the legislature. 

At the session of 1850-51, he made a Report in favor of a Reform 
School for the correction of juvenile offenders — a measure which was 
finally adopted. He is the author of the Ohio Tree-Banking Law, 
framed at the same session — the best system of State banking ever 
devised, embodying many of the features of the existing Banking Law 
of Congress. 

In 1856, he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for 
the Third Judicial District, for the term of five years. He was re- 
elected in 1861, and held the office until his resignation in 1861. 
The decisions of Judge Lawrence, published in the " Boston Law 
Reporter," the " Cleveland "Western Law Monthly," of which he was 
one of the editors, the " Cincinnati Weekly Law Gazette," and the 
" Pittsburg Legal Journal," would, if collected, make a large volume 
of Reports. 

In 1862, he was appointed, by Governor Todd, Colonel of the 
Eighty-fourth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, mustered into the 
service for tliree months, and served with his regiment mainly under 
General B. F. Kelley at Cumberland and New Creek. 



WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 5 

Subsequently to his retirement from the bench, Judge Lawrence 
has occupied himself, in the intervals of business, in the preparation 
of a work on the Ohio Civil Code, and an elementary treatise on the 
Law of Interest and Usury. 

In 1863, President Lincoln gave him, unsolicited, the appointment 
of Judge of the United States District Court for Florida, which he 
declined to accept. In October, 1864, lie was elected a Kepresenta- 
tive in the Thirty-ninth Congress, from the Fourth District of Ohio. 
In 1S66 and in 186S he was re-elected. 

No member of Congress has more earnestly advocated the home- 
stead policy, and the duty of the Government to actual settlers on the 
public lands, than Judge Lawrence. A practice had grown up by 
which the President and Senate, by treaties with the Indian tribes, 
had disposed of large bodies of public lands to corporations and spec- 
ulators. In June, 1868, a treaty was concluded with the Osage In- 
dians, by which S,000,000 acres were about to be sold at twenty 
cents an acre. Judge Lawrence was the first in Congress, or else- 
where, to denounce these treaties as unconstitutional and impolitic, 
as he did in his speech of March 21, 1868. His views were subse- 
quently sustained by the House of Representatives, June 3, 1868, by 
the passage of a joint resolution declaring that no patents should issue 
for lands so sold ; June 18, 1SGS, by the passage of a resolution unani- 
mously affirming that sales of public lands " are not within the 
treaty-making power;" and June 20, 1SGS, by a joint resolution re- 
quiring all public lands to be disposed of in pursuance of law. 

For several years prior to 1868, Congress had been making large 
grants of public lands in aid of railways and other public improve- 
ments, without any provision securing the land to actual settlers. 
On the 20th of January, 186S, Judge Lawrence introduced in Con- 
gress a bill providing that all land thereafter granted to aid public- 
work, whether under existing laws or those afterwards enacted, should 
be sold only to actual settlers at a limited price, the object being to 
event a monopoly, and secure the settlement of the lands. The 
platform of the National Convention .if the two great political 



6 WILLIAM LAWRENCE. 

parties of the country in this year, substantially indorsed this policy. 
During the first session of the Fortieth Congress, Judge Lawrence 
made several speeches on national affairs. One of his principal 
worts was the preparation of a brief, embracing all the authorities 
upon the law of impeachable crimes and misdemeanors. He has given 
the following definition of an impeachable high crime and misde- 
meanor, which will hereafter have the authority of law in American 
practice : 

" An impeachable high crime or misdemeanor is one in its nature 
or consecpiences subversive of some fundamental or essential principle 
of government, or highly prejudicial to the public interest, and this 
may consist of a violation of the Constitution, of law, of an official 
oath, or of duty, by an act committed or omitted, or, without viola- 
ting a positive law, by the abuse of discretionary power from improper 
motives or for an improper purpose. 

" It should be understood, however, that while this is a proper def- 
inition, yet it by no means follows that the power of impeachment is 
limited to technical crimes or misdemeanors only. It may reach offi- 
cers who, from incapacity or other cause, are absolutely unfit for the 
performance of their duties, when no other remedy exists, and where 
the public interests imperatively demand it. 

•• "When no other remedy can protect them, the interests of millions 
of people may not be imperiled from tender regard to official tenure, 
which can only be held for their ruin." 

General Butler, one of the Managers on the part of the House in 
the impeachment of President Johnson, adopted it, and in his open- 
ing argument referred to it in the following complimentary terms : 

'• I pray leave to lay before you, at the close of my argument, a 
brief of all the precedents and authorities upon this subject, in both 
countries, for which I am indebted to the exhaustive and learned la- 
bors of my friend, the Hon. "William Lawrence, of Ohio, member of 
the Judiciary Committee of the House of Eepresentatives, in which 

I fully concur, and which I adopt." 
310 




■ 



^V^tC 



WILLIAM E. ROBIXSOS". 




(iIE people of tlie I'nited States are either emigrants or the 
descendants of emigrants from the Old World. Probably 
one-fifth of them were born in Europe, though seldom more 
than five or six of these hold seats in Congress. There are always 
some of them, however, and they are nowise inferior as a class, either 
in capacity, intelligence, or patriotism. 

William Erigena Robinson was born in TTnagh, near Cookstown, 
Tyrone County, Ireland, on the 6th of May, 1S14. His father 
(Thomas — married to Mary Sloss) was a merchant in Cookstown, rent- 
ing a small farm in Unagh, where he died in 1SG3. 

William worked on his father's farm, and attended school, while a 
boy, entering at length, in 1832, the Royal Academy at Belfast ; but 
a severe attack of typhus fever soon arrested his studies, and, on 
recovering, he resolved to seek his fortune in the New World. Em- 
barking at Liverpool, he had a stormy voyage of eight weeks to New 
York, where he landed in September, 1836. Itis emotions on first 
approaching the shores of his adopted country, found expression as 

follows : 

Hail ! brightest banner that floats on the gale ! 
Flag of the country of Washington, hail ! 
Red are thy stripes, as the blood of the brave, 
Bright are thy stars as the sun on the wave ; 
Wrapt in thy folds are the hopes of the free, 
Banner of Washington, blessings on thee ! 

Mountain-tops mingle the sky with their snow ; 
Prairies lie smiling in sunshine below ; 
Rivers, as broad as the sea in their pride, 
Border thine Empires, but do not divide; 
Niagara's voice far out-anthems the sea ; 
Land of sublimity, blessings on thee ! 
311 



2 WILLIAM E. ROBINSON. 

Hope of the "World ! on thy mission sublime, 
When thou didst burst on the pathway of. Time, 
Millions from darkness and bondage awoke ; 
Music was born when Liberty spoke ; 
Millions to come yet shall join in the glee; 
Land of the Pilgrim's hope ! blessings on thee 1 

Empires shall perish and monarchies fail ; 
Kingdoms and thrones in thy glory grow pale ! 
Thou shalt live on, and thy people shall own 
Loyalty's sweet, where each heart is thy throne. 
Union and Freedom thine heritage be, 
Country of Washington, blessings on thee ! 

Though fully of age, and wholly dependent on his own exertions, 
young Robinson soon entered the classical school of Rev. John J. 
Owen, where he completed his preparation for college, entering Yale 
as a Freshman in the autumn of 1S37. While in college, he began 
to write for the journals, especially the New Haven Herald. He 
graduated in 1841, and his valedictory oration before the Brothers in 
Unity was published by the Society. He now entered the New Ha- 
ven Law School, but still found time for writing, and for lecturing on 
Ireland, in response to invitations from different cities. In 1844, he 
became a writer for the New York Tribune, with which he was for 
several years connected, either as correspondent (" Richelieu ") or as- 
sistant editor ; but he wrote also for the Richmond Whig, Boston 
Atlas, and other journals, especially while acting as correspondent at 
Washington. In the autumn of 1846, he edited for a time the Buf- 
falo Express. In 1848, he was proposed as a Whig candidate for 
Congress from New York City, in a district where a nomination was 
then equivalent to an election ; but another was preferred to him by 
a majority of one. In 1849, he started in that city, in connection 
with the late Thomas Devin Reilly, an Irish paper entitled The People ; 
but this proving a losing speculation, was stopped at the close of its 
first half-year, and Mr. Robinson accepted the post of Measurer in 
the New York Custom House, and held it till the Whig party was 
ousted from power by the election of Pierce as President. General 
Scott was the Whig candidate in 1852, and he had no more zealous 

nor efficient supporter than Mr. Robinson. 

312 



WILLIAM E. ROBINSON. 3 

The dissolution of the Whig party was one consequence (if not 
rather a cause) of General Scott's overwhelming discomfiture, and Mr. 
Robinson thenceforth eschewed politics, lie was married in January, 
1853, to Miss Helen A. Dougherty, of Newark, New Jersey, and de- 
voted himself assiduously to the practice of law in New York for the ten 
vears ensuing. Though avoiding activity or prominence in politic-, 
his affiliations during this period were mostly with the independent 
or anti-Tammany Democrats, by whom lie was once run for a Dis- 
trict Judge; but though he ran ahead of his Democratic rival on 
the regular ticket, the split insured the defeat of both. Mean- 
time he made a visit, in 1S59, to his native land, accompanied by his 

wife, and had the pleasure of greeting once re his aged father not, 

long before his decease. Lie made a hasty trip on the Continent, but 
returned without crossing the Alps. A public dinner was given to 
him by the Mayor, Recorder, and other citizens of New York, on his 
departure, and a similar honor was bestowed upon him at the Giant's 
Causeway by his old friends and neighbors on his arrival in Ireland. 
Having removed to Brooklyn, and the war of secession having con- 
strained him to take an active part in defense of the Union, Presi- 
dent Lincoln, in 1862, appointed him Assessor of Internal Revenue 
in the Third District, and he held that trust until March 4, 1867, 
when he resigned it, having been elected to Congress from that Dis- 
trict, as a Democrat, at the preceding November election, by 12,634 
votes to 10,803 for Simeon B. Chittendon, Republican. The District 
chose a Republican at the preceding election. 

Mr. Robinson's prior knowledge of Congress as a correspondent 
was extensive and familiar. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. 
Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, and John M. Clayton, were members 
in his dav, and he was on friendly terms with all the great men of 
the Whig party. James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, James Bu- 
chanan, and Franklin Pierce, with Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. 
Stephens, Thomas H. Benton, John Slidell, and William L. Yaney, 
were under his eye for years as he watched the proceedings from the 
reporters' gallery of either House. Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham 



4 WILLIAM E. ROBINSON. 

Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson, were members of that House whereof 
Robert C. Winthrop, of Boston, was Speaker, and of whose doings 
Mr. Robinson was a watchful and deeply interested observer. Twen- 
ty years elapsed before he was called to a seat, and in those years 
most of them had passed from earth. Andrew Johnson, Simon 
Cameron, and Robert C. Schenck, are perhaps all who remain in public 
life of those whom Mr. Robinson saw occupying seats in Congress 
in 1846-7. 

Elected as a Democrat, Mr. Robinson has been faithful to the con- 
victions of his party, but not a blind partisan. lie voted for Schuy- 
ler Colfax for Speaker. As a member of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, he has devoted his attention mainly to the securing of full 
protection for the rights of adopted citizens against the claims of 
European Governments to require of them military service, or to 
call them to account for acts done or words spoken in this country. 
If this question shall ultimately be settled to the satisfaction of the 
large class more especially interested, the credit will be largely due 
to Mr. Robinson's ardent and indefatigable efforts. He closed one 
of his speeches on the subject -with these impressive words : 

"I have done what I could to excite the attention of this people, 
and to call that of this House to the subject, and I can only say that 
when this thing is accomplished, when the true doctrine which we 
announce here to-day, and will hereafter insist upon, shall become in- 
corporated in international law, and its vitality shall be recognized 
throughout the world, though I may have departed before that time, 
my memory may live among those who have advocated it. And in 
that hour of triumph for American ideas, and maybe the hour of 
Ireland's independence, although 

" ' I, too, shall be gone ; yet my name shall be spoken 
When Erin awakes, and her fetters are broken.' " 

Mr. Robinson, while discharging his duties as an American citizen, 
has always been devoted to the cause of his native land. The subject 
of protecting American citizens in foreign lands, and guaranteeing 
the right of expatriation, was urged by him on the attention of Con- 

314 



WILLIAM E. ROBINSON. 5 

gress in 1S42, through Henry Clay ; and since then lie has kept it be- 
fore the public in lectures, speeches, and editorials. In 1843, he was 
a prominent actor in the Irish Repeal movement in this country. In 
1847, when the famine broke out in Ireland, he was the principal ac- 
tor in the movement to send from this country that substantial relief 
which the Macedonian and other vessels carried to Ireland. It was 
at his request that his friends, John J. Crittenden and Washington 
Hunt, urged the Half-Million Bill on the Senate (which passed it) 
and the House (where it failed), and carried through the Resolution 
to send the frigate Macedonian with provisions. The national meet- 
ing in Washington, at which Vice-President Dallas presided, and 
Calhoun, Clayton, ( 'ass, and others (one from each State), acted as 
vice-presidents — with Webster, Crittenden, and others, as speakers, 
was due mainly to his exertions. It was at his personal solicitation 
that every officer and speaker attended. In 1848, he threw his whole 
soul into the movement for Irish independence ; and the chief actors 
therein sought, found, and acknowledged Mr. Robinson's efficient and 
disinterested friendship on their arrival in this country. In 1856-7, 
he was Secretary (James T. Brady, President) of the Society of " The 
Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty," which held up the tolerant 
views of Washington in opposition to those of the then formidable 
Know-Nothing party ; and he was chosen by that Society, at their 
lastgrand annual banquet on Washington's birthday, 1S.J7, as speaker 
to the principal toast, in place of Judge Douglas of Illinois, who had 
been chosen for that duty, but was unable to attend. 

Many of Mr. Robinson's lectures, speeches, and orations, and some 
of his poetry, have been published, and extensively epioted and criti- 
cized on both sides of the Atlantic — particularly his orations before 
the Psi Upsilon Society, convened from different colleges, at Hamilton 
College, in 1851, in which he combated the then prevalent idea that 
this country is Anglo-Saxon, arguing that the Irish was the strongest, 
and the Anglo-Saxon the weakest element in the United States. 
The distant mutterings of disunion were heard even then, and, at the 
close of the oration, Mr. Robinson thus referred to it : 

3t.-> 



WILLIAM E. ROBINSOX. 



" Tliis Union shall not fail. It shall stand : for the prayers, and 
hopes, and sympathies of a -world are gathering around it. * * * 

'• There are four millions of citizen soldiers whose every heart is a 
citadel, -whose every body is a shield around and over it ; and .around 
the citadel of liberty shall rise ramparts of bodies, and shall flow a 
deluge of blood, before its safety is periled or its throne shaken. 
From the exiles from one country alone, -whose sons, flying from op- 
pression there, found shelter here, we could raise an army of 100,000 
fighting men. as brave, as irresistible, as their countrymen who fought 
at Cremona or Fontenoy. * * * There should be ' no such word 
as fail * in the Lexicon of this Republic. "Waslungton's wisdom. 
Montgomery's blood, the blessings of the past, the promise of the fu- 
ture, the hopes of the world, are mingling with the folds of its flag, 
and dancing in its stars. * * * 

•• Those who talk of disunion have little faith in man's wisdom, and 
less in God's providence. They have but a faint idea of our bright 
destinv. The light of that flag shall burst like a sun upon the falling 
ruins of oppression throughout the world. Many an eye. sick and 
sunken, shall revive to gaze upon the increasing constellation of its 
stars. There shall be no Gibeon on which the sun of its glory shall 
stand still ■ no valley of Ajalon over which the moon of its beauty 
shall be staved. For him who shall attempt to fire the temple of 
American Liberty, who would pale a star, or blot a stripe from its glo- 
rious flag, time shall be too short for repentance, Heaven too indig- 
nant for forgiveness, and the woe of the doomed too merciful for the 
punishment of his crime. He shall perish from among men : his 
name shall not blister on the page of history ; he, 

' Living, shall forfeit fair renown. 
And, doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust from which he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' " 

316 





t?-^??^<2<3-~<-^— 






JAMES A. JOHXSOX. 



AMES A. JOHNSON was bom at Spartanburg, South 
Carolina, May 16, 1S:>',>. He received a common-school edu- 
cation, and studied medicine and law. From 1850 to 1853 
lie was employed as a writer and correspondent for various news- 
papers. In L853 he went to California, and engaged in raining and 
mercantile business. In the fall of 1S59 he left these pursuits for the 
practice of law, in which he has ever since been engaged. He served 
two terms in the Legislature of California. In 1867 he waselected to 
the Fortieth Congress as a Democrat. The Legislature of California 
having meanwhile changed the time of holding Congressional elections 
from the odd to the even years, he was in 1SC8 re-elected a Represen- 
tative in the Forty-first Congress. In the Fortieth Congress he was 
appointed to positions on the Committee on Post-Offices and Post- 
Roads, and the Committee on Agriculture. Mr. Johnson has made 
several speeches on the Public Lands. Railroads, and other subjects of 
special importance to his State. On the 30th of June. 1868, he 
made a speech in favor of the bill making an appropriation for the 
purchase of Alaska. He gave interesting facts and figures relating 
to the extent and resources of the Territory, and showed the import- 
ance of the acquisition to the whole country, and especially to his own 
State. We make the following extract : 

" California is a young State, but is mature in all that constitutes the 
elements of a rising and prosperous commonwealth. Minerva-like, 
she sprung out fully developed from the fertile brains of her own 
statesmen. As a commercial, agricultural, mechanical, and wealth- 
producing State, despite, disasters from floods and fires, she has at- 



2 JAMES A. JOHNSON. 

tained a greatness which makes the records of her prosperity appear 
almost fabulous. Experience has developed her channels of prosperity, 
and she stands to-day the most notable example in the world of the 
energy, enterprise, and industry of a people. Scarce nineteen years 
ago, her hills and plains 'were settled by the best young bloods of onr 
country, when she commenced an existence with all the elements to 
make her an excelsior State. 

" With her first life she was possessed of all the advantages of the 
improvements of the age, and did not have to grow into their use by 
overcoming the prejudices of the past. We are of the present time, 
and availing ourselves of the advantages of the day ; and as each pro- 
gressive benefit for the community is developed, we have incorpor- 
ated it with our daily life, thus lending vitality ever to our young 
blood and venturesome spirits. Too much honor can never be clone 
the young men of California. Among us are settled young men 
from every country in Europe. With the Kberal spirit of the age 
and our own institutions, we have adopted all that is good to the 
community from each. Such valuable traits, methods, and means of 
future benefit as were consonant with our institutions, we have wove 
into the fabric of our social as well as business life, and have thus 
become more liberal and expansive in our views, more progressive in 
our exertions. We differ essentially in our manners and customs 
from other communities, which are trammeled by old-fashioned rou- 
tine and by old traditions, and worse, by old prejudices. We are 
daring and venturesome. Old fogies would call us daring, extrava- 
gant, and perhaps reckless, but our course is controlled by rules of 
progress and commerce which accord with the spirit of the age, and 
so we make our paths of industry broader, brighter, and more invit- 
ing than can be found elsewhere. The wants of the community, and 
the natural impulse of enlarging the sphere of commercial interests — 
an interest which binds together the States of this Union — rational- 
izes our progress. 

"We need no better example to illustrate this than the recent 

change into our hands of the trade of China, via California, which 

31* 



JAMES A. JOHNSON. 3 

will eventually make San Francisco the center of the commercial 
world, and place in the lap of her queenly and capacious robes the 
wealth of Asia, however this may be to the disadvantage of England. 
This is one of the revolutions resulting from our progress ; and does it 
not reflect equal credit on the commercial enterprise of the great marts 
of the Atlantic, whose interests are so closely interwoven with our 
own as to he almost identical? Any benefit accruing to California, 
is a benefit to them in a commercial point of view. We are rais- 
ing up in our youths, as it were, a new nationality, educated on 
a scale unknown elsewhere in the Union. The blessings of a free 
education are not confined to the channels of English knowledge 
alone; but the German, French, and Spanish classics are taught in 
our public schools, as also are the line arts, the law, medicine, me- 
chanics, metallurgy, music and painting, while theology is not neg- 
lected. We intend that our posterity shall possess the same vigor 
mentally, that a beneficent God has given them physically ; for we 
are blessed with a climate beyond compare, and a soil teeming with 
richness, bearing with an astonishing prolificacy all the cereals and 
fruits of the most temperate as well as tropical climates." 

On the 8th of February, Mr. Johnson addressed the House on the 
subject of Reconstruction, in which he denounced "the tyranny 
which loads the people with unbearable taxation, and enthralls the 
white citizens of ten States." 

On the 24th of February, 1SGS, the Ilouse having under considera- 
tion the Resolution reported from the Committee on Reconstruction 
to impeach the President, Mr. Johnson remarked : 

"Is it wise, is it desirable, is it necassary to impeach the President 
of the United States '. Is there an uprising of the people demanding 
the impeachment of this high officer ? One word answers all these 
questions : No. There is not a man in the United States, outside of 
Congress, who desires the impeachment of the President, except those 
who desire it on political grounds, and those speculators and ao-ita- 
tors who hope to make capital out of their country's misfortunes, 
and hope that by possible convulsions they may be shaken to the 



JAMES A. JOHNSON. 



surface, and may profit by the general ruin. No possible advantage, 
not attainable other ways, will be gained by this impeachment ; and 
untold misfortunes may result from it. Whatever tends to weaken 
the respect of the people for high official station, for our courts and 
laws, weakens the force of the Constitution. This proceeding has such 
tendency. "Whatever tends to make uncertain our laws and institu- 
tions, certainly shoidd be regarded as against good policy. What- 
ever tends to render uncertain and above the courts any tenure, 
whether of constitutional and lawful place, of property, or of life, 
should be avoided as dangerous to liberty, and as leading to chaos 
and anarchy on the one side, or a despotism on the other. The un- 
restrained bad passions of hot and hasty politicians involved us in a 
fearful civil war seven years ago, the horrors of which can never be 
written. By it ten States of this Union have been reduced from 
happy, prosperous, and rich commonwealths, to a state bordering 
upon starvation, to misery, despondency, and the most terrible con- 
dition of poverty, with their governments turned over to the keeping 
of ignorant and lawless bands of degraded negroes. Desolation 
and ruin have swept over that portion of our common country. 
Where the torch and the sword passed by, and left a little green, 
fertile spot, with its happy cultivator undisturbed, the speculator has 
since gone ; the happy tiller of the soil has been turned out penni- 
less and homeless; and the little green spot, by a convenient mode of 
confiscation, has become the property of some political thief who 
prayed for a civil war in his own country, his own land." 

320 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 



'AMES M. ASHLEY is a native of Pennsylvania, and was 
born November 14. \*-j4. He Left home before attain- 
ing his fifteenth year, and for a time was a cabin-boy on 

Western river steamboats. He subsequently worked in a printing 
office, and visiting Portsmouth, Ohio, where his father had at one 
time resided, he connected himself with the press, to which his tastes 
and inclinations appear to have led him, and presently became one 
of the editors of the Disjxitefi, and afterwards editor and proprietor 
of the Democrat. 

From the editor's sanctum, Mr. Ashley vent into the law office of 
C. O. Tracy, Esq., at that time one of the most distinguished lawyers 
of Southern Ohio. There he remained three years, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1S49, but never practiced his profession. 

He engaged for a time in boat-building, and in 1S52 we find him 
at Toledo, Ohio, engaged in the drug business. Meanwhile lie parti- 
cipated actively in politics, and in 1S5S was elected to the Thirty- 
sixth Congress from the Tenth Ohio District. 

Without experience in public life, Mr. Ashley entered upon his 
Congressional career at a time of unusual interest, when the tem- 
pest of Southern treason was gathering in the firmament. While 
many were faltering in the enforcement of the popular demand 
for the nationalization of freedom, he maintained a uniform con- 
sistency, and was among the foremost in demanding this reform. All 
the great measures which now shed luster and honor upon the record 
of the Republican party, were advocated by him long before their 
tion, and many of them were by him first introduced into 
21 321 



JAMES M. ASHLEY 



Congress. He prepared and reported to the House the first measure 
of Keconstruction submitted to Congress, which, though defeated at 
the time of its first presentation, finally received the overwhelming 
indorsement of his party, both in and out of Congress. He lias pre- 
sented several propositions which, at the time of their introduction, 
failed to command the united vote of his party in Congress, but not 
one of importance which did not finally receive that indorsement. 

Mr. Ashley has ever been a most active and reliable friend of the 
soldier. Every measure for their benefit or relief has received his ear- 
nest and active support. During the war very much of his time, when 
not at his post in Congress, was spent in visiting them in the hospitals 
and upon the field, and their every want or request met with his 
hearty response. The greater portion of his salary was expended for 
their relief, and no demand upon his charity or labor in their behalf 
failed to meet a generous response at his hands. Since the close of 
the war he has been ever vigilant in looking after their claims against 
the Government, and his efforts have been of much service in secur- 
ing them against tedious delays and the treachery of unscrupulous 
agents. 

Mr. Ashley was the first to move in the House for the impeachment 
of Andrew Johnson, and made several speeches advocating that 
measure, and for some time stood comparatively alone. 

On the 29th of May he took the lead again in introducing into the 
House a constitutional amendment, the object of which was to abolish 
the office of Vice-President, making the presiding officer of the Senate 
elective by that body, limiting the term of the President to four years, 
and providing for his election directly by the people. 

Mr. Ashley made a speech advocating this amendment, on which 
a contemporary very properly remarks that " the time has been in 
our history when reputations for statesmanship were established by 
speeches of less ability." 

" The country ," said he in that speech, " has been distracted, and its 
peace imperiled more than once, because of the existence of the office 
of Vice-President. The nation would have been spared the terrible 
323 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 3 

ordeal through which it passed in the contest between Jefferson and 
Burr in 1801 had there been no vice-presidential office. Had there 
been no such office, we would have been spared the perfidy of a Tyler, 
the betrayal of a Fillmore, and the baseness and infamy of a Johnson. 
* * * * •::• * 

" While each of the candidates for President and Vice-President 
professes to subscribe to the so-called platform of principles adopted by 
the conventions which nominate them, they nevertheless represent, as 
a ride, opposing factions in the party, and often at heart antagonistic 
ideas, which are only subordinated for the sake of party success. 
This was the case with Harrison and Tyler. Taylor and Fillmore, 
Lincoln and Johnson. "When each of these Vice-Presidents, on the 
death of the President-elect, came into the presidential office, he at- 
tempted to build up a party which should secure his re-election. For 
this purpose they did not scruple to betray the great body of men 
who elected them to the office of Vice-President, nor did they hesi- 
tate ut the open and shameless use of public patronage for that pur- 
pose. The weakest and most dangerous part of our executive system 
for the personal safety of the President is a defect in the Constitution 
itself. I find it in that clause of the Constitution which provides that 
the Vice-President shall, on the death or inability of the President, 
succeed to his office. The presidential office is thus undefended, and 
invites temptation. The life of hut one man must often stand be- 
tween the success of unscrupulous ambition, the designs of mercenary 
cliques, or the fear and hatred of conspirators." 

In a recent address, Mr. Ashley paid the following tribute to cer- 
tain prominent anti-slavery men of the country : 

"To the anti-slavery men and women of the United State- we owe 
our political redemption as a nation. They who endured social and 
political ostracism, the hatred of slave-masters, and the cowardly as- 
saults of Northern mobs, in defense of those who were manacled and 
dumb, and could not ask for help, were the moral heroes of our 
great anti-slavery revolution. To them, and to many thousands whose 
names will never be written on the pages ot' history, hut whose lives 

333 



JAMES M. ASHLEY. 



were as true, as unselfish, and as consecrated as any, is the nation 
indebted for its regenerated Constitution, its vindication of the rights 
of human nature, and its solemn pledge for the future impartial 
administration of justice. To me these are the men whose lives 
are the most beautiful and the most valuable. . . . The world is 
full of men whose pure and unselfish lives ennoble and dignify the 
human race. My exemplars are the men who in all ages have lived 
such lives, whether religious reformers like Luther and Wesley, or phil- 
osophers and statesmen like Hampden and Sydney, Locke and Bacon, 
Cobden and Bright and John Stuart Mill ; or like our own "Wash- 
ington and Lincoln, Phillips and Garrison, Stevens and Sumner, 
Greeley and Gerrit Smith. To me the only model statesman is he 
who secures liberty and impartial justice for all, and protects the weak 
against the strong. He is the statesman and the benefactor who aids 
in educating the ignorant, and in lightening the cares of the toil- 
ing millions." 

For ten years Mr. Ashley held a seat in Congress by successive re- 
elections. In the fall of 1868, however, the official returns gave the 
election to the Forty-first Congress to his opponent, but under such 
circumstances as to cause the seat to be contested. 

324 



JOHN T. WILSON. 



"OIIN THOMAS WILSON was born in Highland County, 
Ohio, April 16", 1811. His father was in politics a Whig, 
in religion a Methodist, and by trade a carpenter, lie died 
when his son, the subject of tins sketch, was bix years old. High- 
land County was, at that time, in a wilderness, and it was no 
unusual thing to hear the wolves howling nightly around the log 
cabins of the settlers. 

John commenced business for himself at sixteen years of age. He 
began with clerking in a store at four dollars a month, and after a 
short time engaged in teaching school. When nineteen, he went to 
Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where he spent the winter in splitting 
rails, at the rate of thirty -seven and a half cents per hundred. In 
the spring following, Mr. Wilson rented some ground and planted a 
corn-field. When this was " laid by," he engaged himself as a farm 
hand at seven dollars per month ; and in the succeeding winter, again 
took to the woods with his ax, to resume, at the same price as before, 
the manufacture of rails. 

He was now in the twenty-first year of his age ; and returning to 
Ohio, he commenced mercantile life in the County of Adams, and 
continued in that business during the twenty-four succeeding years. 
He commenced in a humble and modest way — his first stock of goods 
not being much more than sufficient to load a wheel-barrow. At the 
commencement of the rebellion, Mr. Wilson was one of the first to 
respond with means and influence for maintaining the Union. He 
first gave to his country an only son, a youth of noble intellect and 
liberal attainments. This young man enlisted in the Thirty-third 

335 



2 JOHN T. WILSON. 

Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers, organized at Portsmouth, and 
commanded by the gallant Colonel Sill. He was appointed Orderly 
Sergeant of one of the companies, and distinguished himself as one 
of the most talented and faithful non-commissioned officers of the 
regiment. But he did not long survive the hardships of a soldier's 
life, and died by sickness at Louisville, Kentucky, in the following- 
year. 

As more men were called for by the country, Mr. Wilson himself 
soon volunteered his services, and accepted a recruiting commission 
for the Seventieth Ohio Eegiment. He was promptly elected captain 
of one of the companies of this regiment, and after visiting his dvin<c 
son at Louisville, he joined his regiment at Paducah. He was in 
Sherman's Division in the expedition up the Tennessee. Reaching 
Pittsburg Landing, his regiment had its position in front of Grant's 
army, near Shiloh meeting-house. He was in the sanguinary battle 
of Shiloh, where, although his company had never before been under 
fire, it distinguished itself for coolness and bravery. Among the 
officers honorably mentioned in the Commanding Officer's Report, 
none were more highly complimented than Captain Wilson. After 
the battle, he was violently attacked with disease, and his recovery 
deemed hopeless. In a state of insensibility he was sent home, and, 
by careful treatment, he recovered, so as to be able to rejoin his 
regiment. He continued in the service till forced by disability to 
resign his command. He was afterwards detailed as Brigade Quar- 
termaster, which post he filled with ability and faithfulness until the 
commencement of 1863, when he received an honorable discharge 
from the service. 

In 1863, Captain Wilson was elected to the Ohio State Senate, 
and was re-elected in 1865. In 1806, he was elected to the Fortieth 
Congress as a Representative from the Eleventh District of Ohio, and 
was re-elected in 1868. 

Mr. Wilson has given much careful thought to the great financial 
questions which occupy the public mind. On the 25th of January 
he delivered in the House of Representatives an important speech on 



JOHN T. WILSON. 3 

the Public Debt. In this speech lie proposed and ably advocated the 
establishment of a sinking fund, showing that thus the entire public 
debt might be liquidated within a period of seventeen years. Referring 
to a bill pending in the Senate for funding the public debt, he said : 
"I am opposed to all such bills; I do not wish to change the 
bargain, neither do I want forty years to elapse before the debt is paid 
in full. This funding system, in common parlance, means giving 
new obligations for old ones, with the advantage ordinarily, as in the 
present case, on the side of the holder. The' capitalist is not desirous 
to have the principal due him paid, for it is the goose which lays the 
golden egg, hence he prefers a long bond to a short one, a gold bond 
to one payable in currency, and will readily make the exchange. 
Most other men would do the same, for it is not in human nature to 
refuse the best end of the bargain when offered, and especially when 
offered by so wealthy and so respectable a gentleman as our Uncle 
Sam. 

" This funding system, as it is called, so far from having a tendency 
to bring about the payment of the debt, thereby freeing the country 
from the burden, has precisely the opposite effect; and but i'vw 
instances are to be found in history where nations who, after 
commencing this system, did not continue it indefinitely from genera- 
tion to generation, paying the amount of the principal in interest 
over and over again, without being able to reduce the principal of the 
debt a single dollar, did not finally, and when they could do no better, 
quietly conclude to let the obligation remain, and, like England 
proclaim to the world that 'a public debt was a public blessing' 
leaving their children to struggle under the load. 

" Not so with young America ; he is never so happy as when paying 
his debts ; never sleeps so well as when his obligations are fully met 
and discharged ; and when he gives his son a farm, he does not want 
it encumbered by a Government mortgage to the extent of ten or 
fifteen per cent, on it; value.'' 

He opposed the prop isition t i issue greenbacks in amounts sufficient 
to pay off the five-twenty bonds. "Next to the soldiers of the 



4 JOHN T. WILSON. 

Union," said he, " by whose valor, strength, and skill the Republic 
was saved, I honor the men who in the hour of their country's need 
stepped forward and furnished the sinews of war. We could not have 
survived without either the one or the other of these classes, and I 
have no doubt the Government will do justice to both. Carry out 
this mammoth greenback doctrine, and instead of paying fatherless 
children, pensioned widows, and maimed soldiers in valuable funds, 
as is now done, you will pay them in a depreciated and worthless 
currency, worth perhaps less than ten cents to the dollar, eight dollars 
of which per month will not buy food and raiment sufficient to keep 
the sold and body of the pensioner together ; and thus by turning 
your maimed heroes upon the world as beggars, you will disgrace 
your country for ever. 

" If this policy is to prevail, as well might the rebellion have been 
a success. Ruin the finances, and you ruin the nation ; by striking 
down her credit, you neutralize every element of prosperity." 

Mr. Wilson closed his speech with the following words : 

" It is true that we have a country of almost unbounded extent, 
possessing all the elements of individual and national wealth ; it is 
true that the resources of the country are being rapidly developed, and 
that our population is increasing at a rate unecpialed in the history of 
the world ; but is that any argument why we should not avail 
ourselves of the present propitious times, and lay such a foundation as 
will insure the payment of our indebtedness within the next twenty 
years without any undue taxation or oppression to the people ? 
Certainly not. 

" The fertility of our valleys, the richness of our mines, and the 
extent of our domain are among the glories of the American citizen ; 
but, EO far from having anything in this line for sale from which to 
pay our debts, an unconquerable desire seems to crop out in high 
places for the possession of more country, without regard to its quality, 
or to our ability to pay for it." 

323 



GEORGE V. LAWRENCE. 



^P$|ftP|HE father of the subject of this .-ketch was himself a Mem- 
» ; JM ber of Congress. Hon. Joseph Lawrence was a Represen- 

■Js$* tative in Congress from Pennsylvania, from l s i'"> to l s i".», 
and again from 1S4L to the time of his death, which occurred in 
Washington, April 17. 1842. 

His son, George V. Lawrence, was born in Washington County, 
Pennsylvania, Nov. 13, ISIS. He was a student at the Washington 
( lollege for a time, but through loss of his health failed to graduate. 
He afterwards labored for ten years at fanning. In 1844, he was 
elected to the State Legislature from his native county, and re-elected 
in 1847. He was also a member of the State Senate for six years, 
in which, during his last term in that body, he was chosen Speaker. 
In 1S64, he was elected to Congress, and was re-elected in 1866. 

Mr. Lawrence represents a District of extensive agricultural re- 
sources, with immense capacity for stock-raising and wool-growing. 
in both of which his constituents are largely engaged. In these pur- 
suits, their representative is also deeply concerned, and has a thor- 
ough knowledge of all the relations of a protective tariff to the 
manufacturing interests and the revenues of the country. He also 
possesses the ability requisite to present this subject before the country 
for intelligent legislation. 

In presenting his views in a speech on this general subject, he 
gave the following interesting statistics relating to sheep and wool- 
growing : 

" From 1840 to L860 there was little increase in the production of 
wool, or number of sheep— really no substantial advancement in 
twenty years— and thi> during a period when other interests were, 



G£URGE V. LAWRENCE. 



the most of them, in a flourishing condition; indeed, wool is almost 
the only product that did not increase largely. Our population in- 
creased over eight millions between 1850 and I860. The increase 
of stock, except sheep, in the Western States in these years was one 
hundred and forty-three and a half per cent., but of sheep only two 
and seven-tenths per cent., and wool seventeen per cent. All the 
agricultural products except this increased in the last decade one 
hundred and twenty-five per cent. In 1850 the number of sheep re- 
turned was 21,723,220, and the amount of wool at 25,516,954 pounds. 
The number of sheep in 1860 was 24,823,556, and the amount of 
wool 60,511,543 pounds. 

"In Pennsylvania during the ten years preceding the rebellion, 
the number of sheep had decreased twelve per cent. ; in Illinois, 
f< mrteen per cent. After the war had been waged for four years, and 
we had been thrown more upon our own resources, and less wool was 
imported on account of the danger to which foreign commerce was 
exposed, and also because of the slight protection under the tariff of 
1861, the increase in Pennsylvania in the production of wool was 
seventy-six per cent., and in a greater ratio in some of the Western 
States. Illinois, for example, had during ten years preceding de- 
creased fourteen per cent. ; but during the first two years of the war 
the number increased from 709,135 to 1,200,195. This shows how 
this interest increased when we had control of the home market, or 
even partially so. I doubt, not many wool-growers will be utterly 
astonished when I present figures showing the importations of for- 
eign wool into the United States, and when they see how their in- 
terests come in competition and are put in jeopardy by products of 
cheap land and cheaper labor in foreign countries sold in their own 
market.'' 

In his speech pending the question of the Presidential Impeach- 
ment, Mr. Lawrence thus describes the conduct of Mr. Johnson : 

4i When we refused to acquiesce in his efforts to restore rebels to 
power, and to establish governments in the South on his plan, which 
was intended to bring into the high places of the Government lead- 

330 



GEORGE V. LAWRENCE. 



in-- rebels just from the fields of blood and carnage, and to place the 
loyal men of the South for ever under the control and dominion of 
this class, and to allow these same leaders to renew the conflict in the 
halls of Congress which they had lost in the field, he boldly sep- 
arated from those who elected him, vetoed almost everj important 
measure which was intended in any way to restore the Southern 
States, so as to prevent a recurrence of the troubles through which 
we had just passed, and allied himself with those who had opposed 
the war, and denounced him and us and all our measures to put down 
the rebellion. 

" In his veto messages at various times, and so often repented, he was 
hold in the utterance of hi- sentiments, and defiant when the people 
indorsed our acts and condemned his. lie sought opportunities to 
send to the House and Senate insulting messages, lie harangued 
the mob on the l'lM of February, l s 'i'i. naming and abusing promi- 
nent members of Congress and the Senate, and leading public jour- 
nalists of the country, to the great disgrace of himself and the hu- 
miliation of all the honest and intelligent people of the nation. He 
traveled North and West, and on all public occasions denounced the 
representatives of the people in intemperate and inflammatory lan- 
guage, suited to the fish-market. He discussed the proposition of 
recognizing Southern traitor-, elected under his plan of reconstruc- 
tion, and Northern Democrats, as the Congress of the nation, if they 
would assemble together. He restored many leading rebels, and re- 
turned to them their property without consent of Congress. He has 
called to his intimate counsels some of those who were violently and 
openly opposed to the war to save the Union, and has as studiously 
avoided and disregarded the advice of those who did most to elect 
him, and to aid in preserving our unity as a nation. Notwithstand- 
ing all this array of offenses, and many I cannot enumerate in the 
time allotted me, I was opposed to the first attempt to impeach, he- 
cause while I thought these offenses were great, they might not he 
considered as intentional violations of law, and could not, in the 
common sense of the term, be considered high crimes and misde- 



331 



4 GEORGE V. LAWRENCE. 

meanors. Then again, I knew the country demanded peace and 
harmony in council, if jwssible. I feared the monetary and commer- 
cial interests of the country would suffer by the constant agitation of 
the question, and I believed a large majority of the people I have the 
honor to represent were opposed to it, and in this I was correct, as 
I have had ample evidence since. * * * 

" After the Senate has acted and the President is deposed, confi- 
dence will be restored, and we will be able to carry out our measures 
of reconstruction without the opposition of the rebels of the South 
and their allies in the North, and secure to the loyal men South their 
rights under the Constitution and the acts of Congress. 

" It cannot be denied that the President has used all his offical power 
and influence to defeat our measures of reconstruction, has invited 
and encouraged the leading rebels of the South to oppose and aid in 
the defeat of our plan to build up State Governments in the South, 
and has been in a measure successful ; for the best, most mild, and fail- 
proposition we ever made was the amendments proposed to the Consti- 
tution in 1S66, and on which we should have stood until this time, 
and compelled submission to them. The people indorsed them fully, 
and, for my own part, I much preferred them to any measure adopted 
since. No plan, however, to bring in these States which Congress can 
present will receive the sanction of the President ; and had it not been 
for his persistent opposition to our measures, and the encouragement 
given to those lately in rebellion, by his acts and by the position of ' 
the Democratic party, we would long since have had those States rep- 
resented on this floor, and harmony and peace in the country. 
AYhen the President is removed in a constitutional way (and I hope it 
will be done in no other way), there will be rejoicing among all the 
loyal people of the land, not because of the triumph of Congress over 
the President, but because the Constitution and law are vindicated, 
and the world will see that even the highest officer under our form of 
Government is amenable to the law, and can be punished for its infrac- 
tion. Let the majesty of the law be vindicated, and loyal and true 
mou become our rulers." 

332 




^&^i>~ 



<\\i:man a. NEWCOMB. 




jARMAN A. NEWCOMB was boni in Mercer County, 
Pennsylvania, July 1, L830. After receiving an academical 
education, he commenced the study of law, at the age of 
eighteen, with Hon. W. M. Stevenson. He removed t" Freeport, 
Illinois, where he resumed the reading of law. ami was admitted to 
practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois. lie soon after emigrated 
to Iowa, ami located at West Union, Fayette County. Here lie was 
elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney, which lie held two years. 
lie was then eleeted and served as Judge for two years. 

Early in lSGl,he raised one of the first companies that entered the 
three years' service, for the suppression of the Rebellion. !!<■ was 
mustered into the service on the 16th of May. 1861, as Captain of 
Company F, Third Regiment of Iowa Volunteers. In the fall of the 
same year, he removed his family to Missouri, where he has since 
resided. After serving a year and a half in the army, lie resigned 
because of ill-health. 

In lS64,he was elected a member of the lower House of the General 
Assembly of Missouri, and took a leading part in all the important 
questions which came before that body. He was especially active 
in opposition to a change in the Constitution which imposed disabili- 
ties on rebels. He was appointed, by Governor Fletcher, Attorney 
for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Missouri, which he declined, as 
he did the Judgeship of the same Circuit, which was subsequently 
offered him. 

In 1866, Mr. Xewcomb was elected a member of the Fortieth 
Congress to represent the Second District of Missouri, composed of 
the Counties of Jefferson, Crawford. Phelps, Franklin, Maries, Gas- 
333 



2 CARMAN A. NEWCOMI1. 

conade, and ( >sage, together with four wards of the city of St. Louis. 
In the deliberations of the Fortieth Congress, Mr. Newcomb took an 
active part. In a speech favoring the impeachment of the President, 
he said : 

" The impeachment and removal of Andrew Johnson will be looked 
upon all over the world, as the grand crowning triumph of freedom 
and republicanism, and do more to overthrow arbitrary power and 
oppression, and establish the universal Republic, than any other act 
of this Government up to the present time. The war of 1812, the 
war with Mexico, and the late civil contest with rebellion, demonstrated 
the power of the Republic to repel invasion, to prosecute foreign war, 
and defend itself against the machinations of internal foes. The 
impeachment and removal of Andrew Johnson will prove the power 
of the people, under the forms of law, to remove a ruler of their own 
selection whenever he proves false to the ideas that underlie the 
institutions of our country, or his elevation to power. The contests 
of arms resulted in victories of force over force, while the successful 
impeachment of a criminal Executive will prove the grandest of the 
many grand victories of liberty and peace, more noble and enduring 
in its influence upon the future of the nation, than ten thousand 
victories won upon the field of carnage and strife. 

In a speech on the Suffrage question, Mr. Newcomb thus sums up : 
" The colored man lias ever yielded a faithful allegiance to the 
Government, paid taxes, and faithfully discharged the duties of 
citizenship in time of peace. He has rendered gallant service in all 
the wars of our nation, winning the highest commendation of Wash- 
ington, Jackson, and Grant. His deeds of heroism and valor are 
most honorable. They are for ever treasured up in the history of our 
country. They are immortalized by the speech of the orator and the 
poet's song; and, sir, I do insist that while we recpiire and accept his 
service in support and defense of the Government, it is an act of 
injustice and cowardice to withhold from him his rights of citizen- 
ship that will some day call down upon this nation the scorn and 
reproach of mankind." 

.33 i 




/Z ,/— '-- '■ ^y 



RTJFUS MALLORY. 



'DFDS MALLOKY was born June 10,1831. His birth- 
place was Coventry, Chenango County. NewYork. Soon 
after his birth, his parents emigrated to Alleghany County, 

w In 'iv they roided until 183S, when they removed to Steuben ( 'oiinty. 
Young Mallorj enjoyed such educational advantages as the common- 
schools then afforded. His allotment in this respect was that which, 
to this day, is common with farmers' hoys ; that is, he attended school 
in winters, and wrought upon the farm during the remainder of the 
year. At the age of thirteen, he attended an academy at Alfred 
Centre during the winter term, returning to labor upon the farm 
through the summer and fall. After two more terms at the academy, 
he commenced teaching a district school at the age of sixteen. He 
continued teaching in winters, laboring upon the farm during the 
summer, and studying at the academy in the fall, until twenty-one 
years of age. 

He now engaged himself as a clerk in a small store in Andover, 
Alleghany County, in which capacity he acted for about two years, 
when he purchased an interest in the store, and became a partner. 
One of his associates in the firm, J. C. Everett, Esq., was a lawyer of 
superior attainments, who had been thoroughly educated at one of 
the Eastern colleges, and had commenced practice at the same bar 
with Daniel Webster. He had retained his large and well-selected 
library, and Mallory, under his instruction, commenced the study of 
law. He continued his studies until 1S55, when he left the State of 
New York, and went to reside in the "West, making his home in Henry 
County, Iowa. 

333 



2 RUFUS MALLORY. 

During the three years of his residence in Iowa, Mr. Mallory de- 
voted most of his time to teaching, yet giving all his leisure hours to 
the diligent prosecution of his law studies. Leaving Iowa in the fall 
of 185S, he emigrated to Oregon- -reaching that territory at New 
Year, 1S59. His first residence here was Koseburg, the capital of 
Douglas County, where he resumed the business of teaching, which 
he continued for fifteen months. During this time, through the kind- 
ness of Hon. S. F. Chadwick, then the County Judge, he had access 
to an excellent law library — a privilege of which he eagerly availed 
himself for the prosecution of legal stud}'. 

In the month of March, 1S60, at the term of the Circuit Court of 
the State, held in Douglas County, Mr. Mallory was admitted to 
practice as an attorney and counsellor-at-law. In June following, he 
was elected District Attorney of the First Judicial District, in which 
capacity he served during two years. In June, 1S62, he was chosen 
to represent his county in the lower house of the State legislature, 
which held its session in the following September. He was there 
made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee ; and after the close of 
the session, he was appointed, by Gov. Gibbs, District Attorney of 
the Third Judicial District, in place of Hon. J. G. "Wilson, appointed 
Judge of the Fifth District. In 1864, he was elected to the same of- 
fice, and continued to fill it during the term of two years, when, in 
1S66, he was chosen a member of the Fortieth Congress by a majority 
of about six hundred. 

In politics, Mr. Mallory was a Whig, and cast his first vote for 
Gen. Scott for President, and continued to adhere to the Whig party 
so Long as it had an existence. In 1860, he voted for Stephen A. 
Douglas ; but at the breaking out of the war, he was among the first 
t<> advocate the rubbing out of all party lines, and of uniting with- 
out regard to former political opinions for the purpose of crushing the 
rebellion — thus forming the great Union party that swept the State 
at the June election of 1S62. Mr. Mallory was elected as a Union 
man to the legislature in that year, and has continued to act with the 

Republican party to the present time. 

336 







AVWWl: 






NORM AX 13. JUDD. 



HESCENDED from the old Dutch stock to which the region 
adjacent to the Hudson River owes so much of its thrift 
and energy, Norman l>. .ludd was born at Elome, New 
York, January 10, 1815. 

Young Judd received the radiments of education at the common 
schools, and subsequently attended Grovernor's High School atEome. 
Upon his graduation from the school, he was qualified to enter col- 
lege; but being unwilling to burden his parents with the expenses of 
his education, he determined to enter at once upon business pursuits. 
He was employed for a short time as a merchant's clerk ; but finding 
this an uncongenial pursuit, he entered upon the study of law in his 
native town, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1836, hav- 
ing just attained his majority. 

One of Mr. Judd's schoolmates and friend, at Grovernor's, after- 
wards distinguished as Chief-Justice Caton, had removed to the 
West, and settled in Chicago, where he had laid the foundation of a 
lucrative law practice. 

He wrote to Mr. Judd, requesting him to come to the new city, 
which had already commenced to attract attention. The letter from 
his friend, and the advantages which the West then held out to young 
men, induced him to comply with the request. He arrived in Chi- 
cago in November, 183G, and at once entered into a partnership with 
Mr. Caton. His abilities as a lawyer immediately gave him prom- 
inent position at the bar, and secured for him an election as the first 
City Attorney, during the mayoralty of Hon. William B. Ogden, in 
the year 1837, a position which he filled successfully for two years. 
22 337 



XORMAX B. JUDI). 



In 1S3S, Judge Caton removed to Plainrield, 111., and the partner- 
ship between him and Mr. Judd was dissolved. Immediately there- 
after, he entered into partnership with Hon. J. Y. Scammon, and 
they remained together in the successful practice of the law for nine 
years. 

Mr. Judd held many city offices during the time, and had become 
known as one of the leading lawyers of the State. He became 
largely engaged in railroad business, which he managed with so much 
ability and satisfaction to the companies, that he was permanently 
retained as the attorney for the Michigan Southern, the Chicago and 
Eock Island, the Mississippi and Missouri, and the Pittsburg and 
Fort Wayne railroads. He also held the office of president of the 
Peoria and Bureau Valley Railroad, president of the Railroad Bridge 
Company at Rock Island, a director of the Chicago and Rock Island 
railri lad, and a director of the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad. He 
has been engaged in nearly all the railroad enterprises that centered 
at Chicago, manifesting rare abilities for organizing that vast system 
which is now a source of wealth to the State, and of growth to the 
city. 

His active political life commenced in 1844, when he was elected 
to the State Senate, on the Democratic ticket, from the district of 
Cook and Lake Counties, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resigna- 
tion of Hon. Samuel Hoard. He was re-elected to the same position in 
1846, and (the new constitution cutting off half his term) again in 
1848. His career in the Senate was so satisfactory in the ad- 
vancement of the best interests of Chicago, that lie was re-elected 
in 1852, and again in 1856. During the sixteen years that he was 
State Senator, he gave his best energies and abilities to securing 
the material growth and prosperity of Chicago. He also did much to 
place the impaired credit of the State on a healthy basis, and, aided by 
bis close knowledge of the law and his position as an attorney, he 
helped largely to mould, by legislation, the character of the courts 
of Chicago. 

We come now to an important era in Mr. Judd's political lite, the 
333 



NORMAN 1!. JUDD. 3 

events of which brought him more prominently than ever before the 
people of the State. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was 
agitating the entire country at the election in the autumn of L853, 
and was the entering-wedge that was to divide parties. The Legis 
lature of Illinois, elected that year, was made up of three parties : 
Democrats, Whigs, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. The General 
Assembly, in joint session, was composed of one hundred members. 
Of these the Whigs and Anti-Nebraska Democrats numbered fifty- 
one, and the Democrats forty-nine. Mr. Judd belonged to the Ami 
Nebraska Democrats, and was a zealous and unflinching advocate of 
their doctrines, although the party seemed to be in a hopeless minor- 
ity. ( >n the meeting of the General Assembly, the full strength of 
the party was eight, three Senators and five Representatives. Before 
the election for Senator came on, that small minority was still 
further reduced by the loss of three of its members. Honorable 
.lame- Shields, who had voted to repeal the Missouri Compromise, 
was a candidate for re-election. Mr. Lincoln was the candidate of 
the Whigs, who had forty-six votes. Judge Trumbull was the can- 
didate of the Anti-Nebraska Democrats, who could muster five votes. 
After several ballots, the Democrats dropped General Shields, and 
cast their votes for Governor Joel A. Mattison. On the nineteenth 
ballot, the friends of Mr. Lincoln, at his request, dropped his name, 
and joining the Anti-Nebraska Democrats, elected Judge Trumbull 
as Senator. 

The action of the small minority in this election caused an intense 
excitement among the Whig politicians throughout the State; and 
afterwards, in 1860, when Mr. Judd was a candidate for nomination 
by the Eepublican party to the office of Governor, his opponents 
charged him with treachery and had faith toward Mr. Lincoln. 

A letter was addressed to Mr. Lincoln, inquiring into the truth of 
these charges. He replied with characteristic candor, fully justify- 
ing " the wisdom, politically, of Mr. Judd's course," and testifying 
to "his honesty, honor, and integrity." 

In 1850, Mr. Judd was a member of the famous Bloomington Con- 
031 



4 NORM AX B. JL'DD. 

vention, that organized the Republican party in Illinois. lie was 
one of the prime movers of that Convention, and brought to bear 
upon it that executive ability which has always marked his career in 
the organization of conventions, the management of canvasses, and 
the direction of great political movements. His prominence in the 
Convention, both as a counselor and projector, placed him on the 
Committee on Resolutions, and secured for him the appointment of 
Chairman of the State Central Committee — a position which he held 
during the canvass of 185G, the Lincoln and Douglas Senatorial 
campaign of 1858, and the canvass of I860, which resulted in the 
election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. During that period, his 
practical experience and cool judgment did much to place the party in 
the majority ; and he managed all its canvasses with remarkable suc- 
cess. His forte was not so much on the stump — although he was 
always a clear, able, and forcible speaker — as in planning the battle, 
choosing the ground, distributing the forces, and governing their 
movements. In this direction he brought a rare generalship to bear 
upon campaigns. 

The next important event in Mr. Judd's political life, was the 
Philadelphia Convention, that nominated John C. Fremont for the 
Presidency, to which Mr. Judd was a delegate from Illinois, and 
chairman of the delegation. He was selected by the delegation as a 
member of the National Republican Committee. By his efforts in 
that Committee, be secured Chicago as the locality for the Republi- 
can Convention of 1S60. 

In 1858, after a consultation with Mr. Judd, Mr. Lincoln con- 
cluded to ask for a joint discussion with Judge Douglas on the 
great issues of the day. Upon Mr. Judd devolved the duty of 
making the preliminary arrangements, and managing the executive 
part of a discussion which must ever be regarded as one of the most 
memorable events in the political history of the country. 

The next political movement in which Mr. Judd was prominently 
engaged was the Convention that nominated Mr. Lincoln for the 
Presidency, held in Chicago, in 1860, in which lie was chairman of 

340 



NORMAN B. JUDD. -5 

the Illinois delegation. The contest in the Convention was between 

the friends of Mr. Seward, under the leadership of the New York del- 
egation, and the friends of Mr. Lincoln, under" the leadership of the 
Illinois delegation. .Mr. Seward was placed in nomination, in behalf 
of the New York delegation, by Hon. "William M. Evafts; and Mr. 
Lincoln, in behalf of the Illinois delegation, by Mr. Judd. The con- 
test throughout was one of the most animated ever known in the his- 
tory of political conventions. Mr. Seward's interests were in the 
hands of some of the most astute and mflu'entia] politicians of the 
Last, and some of the prominent party-leaders of the West. At the 
outset Mr. Seward'- chances seemed the most favorable"; but the 
ground had been carefully reviewed, and the preliminaries had Keen 
skillfully planned by the friends of Mr. Lincoln. Although the 
struggle was a long and severe one, Mr. Judd's generalship was suc- 
cessful, and Mr. Lincoln received the unanimous nomination of the 
Convention to be the standard-bearer of the Republican party. 

Mr. Judd was one of the party that accompanied Mr. Lincoln when 
he went to Washington to assume the duties of the Presidency. "When 
the party arrived in Cincinnati, Mr. Judd received a letter from Mr. 
Allen Pinkerton, a detective officer in Baltimore, informing him that 
there was a plot on foot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln on his passage 
through that city. Additional evidence communicated at Buffalo,' 
New York, and Philadelphia, convinced Mr. Judd that the'murderous 
and treasonable conspiracy was a reality, lie kept the matter a pro- 
found secret from Mr. Lincoln and his company until they reached 
Philadelphia, and then, in the Continental Hotel, laid all the proofs 
of the conspiracy before them. The evidence was so conclusive that 
Mr. Lincoln was fully convinced of a plot to assassinate him, and 
acquiesced in Mr. Judd's arrangement, l>y which he returned from 
Harrisburg, and leaving Philadelphia by the night train, proceeded 
immediately to Washington, where he arrived a day earlier than was 
expected. He thus eluded his enemies, and deferred the fatal blow of 
assassination which fell upon him and appalled the world a little more 

than four years later. 

311 



NORMAN B. JUDD. 

On Mr. Lincoln's accession to the Presidency, March 4, 1SG1, the 
first appointment that he made after nominating the members of his 
Cabinet, was that of Mr. Judd to be Minister to Berlin. Jle imme- 
diately sailed for his new field of duty, where he remained during Mr. 
Lincoln's administration, one of the most energetic, faithful, and ac- 
complished of our Representatives in foreign countries. Honored by 
Mr. Lincoln in being made the recipient of his first appointment, Mr. 
Judd was also distinguished by Mr. Johnson as the first victim in the 
s cries of removals by which he marked his departure from the party 
that elected him to office. 

Mr. Judd came home from Berlin in October, 1S65. He was at 
once spoken of by prominent Republicans in Chicago as the suitable 
man to receive their nomination for Representative in Congress. 

Hon. John Wentworth, a gentleman of great ability and political 
iullucnce, was his opponent before the Convention. They had been 
rivals for twenty years in the Democratic and Republican parties. 
The contest for the nomination was very spirited, but Mr. Judd 
triumphed over his rival, and received the nomination. He was 
elected by a majority of nearly eleven thousand votes. 

In the deliberations and discussions of the Fortieth Congress, Mr. 
Judd took a prominent and influential part. By his devotion to the 
interests of his enterprising constituency, and his patriotic regard for 
the good of the country, he merited the testimonial which was given 
in his re-election in November, 1868. 




I 



JOHJs WLNTHEOP CHANLER 



*OKN WINTHItOP < HANLEE was born in the eitj of 
New York in 1826. Having graduated in Columbia Col- 
lege, New Fork, in l s 47. he studied law, and practiced the 
profession until 1859, when he entered political tife as a member of 
the New York Stair Assembly. In 1860 he was nominated for the 
State Senate, and declined. In the same year he was a candidate 
for Kepresentative for the Sixth District of New York, but was de- 
feated. Two years later, he was elected a Representative to the 
Thirty-eighthCongress, from the Seventh New York District, and was 
re-elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. In the Thirty- 
eighth Congress he served on the Committee on Patents; in the 
Thirty-ninth on the Committee on Patents, and the Bankrupt Law; 
and in the Fortieth Congress on the Committee on Patents, Elections, 
and Southern Railroads. 

Mr. Chanler has been prominent among the Democrats of Con- 
gress, advocating with zeal and eloquence the views of the minority 
on the important subjects of recent legislation. On the 10th of De- 
cember, 1867, Mr. Chanler delivered a speech in the House of repre- 
sentatives, in reply to Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, on his Southern Confis- 
cation Bill, from which we make the following extract : 

"Confiscation is a method by which a conqueror robs his foes and 
rewards his friends. Two distinct acts are done by it, and two dis- 
tinct motives actuate it. One result is sought by it. namely, security 
to the State established by the conqueror. All confiscation is rob- 
bery ; it is the tool of the tyrant and the oppressor, who, under the 
law of might, creates his title to that which was another's. History 

343 



JOHN W. CHANLER. 

is filled with examples of confiscation. Founded in violence, sus- 
tained by fraud, and sanctioned by necessity, it has become one of the 
established methods by which States are overthrown and maintained. 
Revolutions, civil wars, conspiracies, assassinations, work the decay 
of dynasties, parties, and States ; but by confiscation the victor seizes 
the sp>oils, and holds possession by the right of arms. Confiscation 
and proscription have moved hand in hand through all the changes 
and fluctuations of empire, and have come down to us heavy with 
crimes of past ages, and stained with the blood, and burdened with the 
wrongs of uncounted thousands whom man's inhumanity to man has 
made to mourn. The Roman triumvirs divided the empire and 
doomed their dearest friends to assassination in the same breath. 
The genius and elocpxence of Cicero could not save him from the doom 
which partisan hate decreed against him. The empire of Augustus 
was cemented with blood and enriched by the wealth of obnoxious 
men, proscribed by his partisans in a spirit of revenge and avarice. 
Roman liberty lost her last great advocate in the death of Cicero. 
Roman empire began when the spirit of liberty was silenced by the 
edict 6f;pros.cription and confiscation. All along the highway of his- 
tory are strewn magnificent monuments reared to commemorate this 
mighty wrong by the successful tyrant of the era. No reader of the 
inscriptions which they bear, can leave their perusal without cherish- 
ing a hope that in his day no ruthless tyrant shall rob him of his 
patrimony, his freedom, or his life. Confiscation is one of the hid- 
eous monsters chained to the car of grim-visaged war, and never should 
be let loose to raven for its prey. It legitimately is only an instru- 
ment of terror, and should not be let loose to destroy. In time of 
peace it should be nowhere seen or heard; savage, cruel, destroying, 
it has no place among civilized, humane, and law-abiding men in 
times like these." 

Having spoken of the general character of confiscation laws, and 
the punishments usual among civilized nations. Mr. (hauler said of 
this particular measure : 

" It is a legal, lineal offspring of that body of laws which sent the 
341 



JOHN W. CHANLER. 3 

commissioners of Herod to every household to fetch him the young 
child whom he feared. It is of the same kind as those memorable 
la \\ - of Spain which drove the Moors from their homes in Andalusia ; 
and of that edict of France which sent Protestant Huguenots to this 
land, and every where out of their native land, in search of a home. 

" It is the same kind of laws, in a written form, as the crude laws 
of conquest issued by the commissioners of the King of Dahomey, of 
Congo, or any barbaric absolute monarchs of Central Africa, which 
strips every prisoner of every right to live, save at the option of the 
conqueror. The object is the same, the effect the same — revenge! 
revenge! revenge — and all in the name of justice under the cover 
of law — cruel, had law — terrible, dire vengeance, carrying desola- 
tion and ruin in its course- blear-eyed justice, seeing only the ave- 
nues of wrong and cruelty. 

"It was one of a long series of indictments which, as the great 
dragon 'swinges the horrors of his twisted tail,' was to close in upon 
the white race of the Southern States, and to strangle them into a 
torpor worse than death — the torpor of political subordination to the 
negro. This is the tail of this horrid monster of political atrocity ; 
it carries the sting which was to rob the white race of all political 
vitality in the future. Its fiery breath was to light up the flames of 
another civil war of races — the prize to the conquering race to be the 
public lands in the Southern States. That the negro might he 
stronger and more irresistible for evil in this conflict, the Secretary of 
War is, by this bill, made monarch of the black kingdom of Dixie — 
supreme and mighty lord, serene invincible sovereign and com- 
mander-in-chief of the black armies which were and may hereafter 
be enrolled into our services, armed and equipped, without law of 
Congress, hut on the mere general order of the War Secretary. That 
money might be had for this black horde without additional tax, the 
lands confiscated by this bill are to be sold — always, however, under 
the commission of this sovereign Secretary of War, wdio shall make 
a trust fund of a large part of the proceeds of the sale, to keep the 
families of his black warriors in hog and hominy, while the throats 

345 



JOHN W. CHAXLER. 



of white citizens are being heroically cut, or their starved bodies 
stuck with black bayonets." 

On the 6th of February, 1SGS, Mr. Chanler delivered an able 
speech in the House of representatives on the Bights of American 
citizens abroad, from which we make the following brief extract : 

" It does not properly belong, perhaps, to this branch of the Gov- 
ernment, to mar the harmony which may exist between the Secretary 
of State and our foreign relations. But if the representatives of a 
free and brave nation do not use every means in their power to 
redress the wrougs done by the oppressor of American citizens at home 
or abroad, the curse of that nation will justly rest upon then- memory. 
The brand of sloth and neglect will be stamped on our names in 
history, when the inevitable consecpience of the long list of griev- 
ances under which the naturalized citizen has lived in this country 
since the Revolution, shall culminate in universal Fenianism, involv- 
ing this Government in a labyrinth of discords, complicated by dis- 
grace. 

" The destinies and rights of many million emigrants from Europe 
to this country, are in our hands. A new epoch has been made in 
the law of nations by the power of steam. The lateen-sails which 
wooed the breeze to waft the Asiatic races along the shores of In- 
dian and Chinese seas, now flap idly on their reedy masts, as the 
swift steamer rides the deep, laden with the adventurous freight of 
human beings departing from Asia, to seek labor in the "Western 
"World, or coming from Europe to seek their fortunes in Australasia. 
The barriers built by Confucius are battered down by progress and 
Christian civilization. The Chinese wall of exclusiveness and 
despotism is crumbling at the sound of the steam-whistle, more ter- 
rible to barbarians than an army with banners." * 

346 




■ 




'J-7l,-,-^^£ 



i) an iki. -i. morrell. 



[EKWICK, in tlie State of Maine, is the native place of Daniel 
J. Bforrell, who was horn A.ugus1 v , L821. He received a 
common school education, inherited a fine constitution, and 
grew up amid the invigorating influences of farming labors, and a 
healthy climate. At sixteen years of age, he left home, and engaged 
in the mercantile business in the city of Philadelphia. In this busi- 
ness, as clerk and principal, he continued during eighteen years. At 
the end of this time, his talents and industry had won for him such a 
position in business, that he was selected to take charge of, and. if pos- 
sible, to resuscitate the works of the Cambria Iron Company, located 
at Johnstown, Penh. These works had been erected in ls.j.3, but 
the company became financially embarrassed before their completion, 
and the enterprise had pmved unprofitable. A lease of the entire 
property was qow made to the firm of "Wood, Morrell & Co.," 
who not only carried out the original plans of the Cambria Iron 
Company, but during their lease they greatly enlarged the works, 
and increased their capacity. 

In 1862, the Cambria Iron Company was reorganized with a capi- 
tal of §1,500,000, Mr. Morrell being retained as superintendent. 
Since then, it has carried on the business of mining and manufac- 
turing under its charter, and is now the largest manufacturer of rail- 
road iron in the country, and has achieved an almost world-wide repu- 
tation for the extensiveness of its operations, the liberality of its man- 
agement, and the superiority of its products. The company owns 
about thirty thousand acres of land — mostly mineral land — has four 
large blast-furnaces, rolling mills, machine shop, foundry, etc., with 

3-17 



2 DANIEL .1. MORRELL. 

numerous dwellings fur the accommodation of its operatives. The 
original mill building having been burned in 1S57, it was rebuilt in 
the same rear by the lessees. The new edifice is six hundred and 
twelve feet in length, bv one hundred feet wide, with cross wings 
three hundred and seventy-two feet by seventy-four in width. Then 
in 1863, an additional mill building was erected, three hundred feet 
by one hundred, with a connecting wing seventy-four by twenty feet. 
In 1S65, a further extension of the building was made of three hun- 
dred by one hundred feet. The production of this immense estab- 
lishment in 18G5 was about one thousand tons per week, while the 
extensions and improvements have increased its capacity ecpial to the 
production of from sixty t>:> seventy thousand tons of finished rail- 
road iron per annum. 

Mr. Morrell has proved himself not only a capable and successful 
business man, but a man of much public spirit and benevolence. 
His advent at Johnstown was a source of great advantage to that 
place. He not only raised the bankrupt Cambria Company into 
life, and carried forward its works to completion, but he inspired on 
every hand a spirit of enterprise for the improvement and growth <>t 
the town. A national bank was established, of which he became the 
president, and he was for a number of years an active and influential 
member in the councils of the town. 

In 1860, Mr. Morrell was elected as a Republican Representative 
in the Fortieth Congress, from the 17th District of Pennsylvania, 
and was re-elected in October, 1S08. As might be expected, Mr. 
Morrell is an active and efficient member of the House. Though a. 
new member, he was honored with the chairmanship of the impor- 
tant Committee on Manufactures. This committee, in June, 1S6S, 
presented to the House a voluminous and able Report on " Protec- 
tive Policy," which doubtless was mainly prepared by Mr. Morrell, 
as chairman of the committee. In this Report it is maintained that 
the protective policy is sanctioned by public sentiment— that it was 
the policy of the early statesmen of this country— that it is the poli- 
cy of all industrial nations — that such policy is justified by experi- 

348 



DANIEL J. MORRELL. 3 

ence— that it is indispensable to the existence among- us of a diversi- 
fied industry— that it is requisite to secure a remunerative market 
for the products of agriculture— and, finally, that it is a benefit, in- 
stead of a tax, to consumers. 

During the first session, Mr. Morrell introduced a finance bill, which 
he supported in a speech in which he advocated an American system 
of industry and finance as the guaranty of national prosperity. 

He also introduced a bill to provide for a reserve of gold in the 
Treasury and national hank-, and for other purposes; another bill 
authorizing the payment of bounties to persons who were rejected as 
volunteers, and were immediately afterward drafted and held to 
sen ice. 

Mr. Morrell's speech in support of the Finance bill alluded to has 
attracted much attention, and no little severe criticism from those 
who differ from its views as to legislative policy on the subject. 

On the 7th of July, 1868, Mr. Morrell delivered another inter- 
esting speech on the occasion of his reporting a bill for modifying 
the warehousing system. He concludes this speech as follows : 

'•It will perhaps he charged that the purpose of this bill is to dimin- 
ish imports. I admit the charge and defend the purpose. "We want 
less of the products of foreign labor, and more constant employment 
for our own. We want to bring the aggregate of our imports below 
the sum of our exports. We have sent abroad during the eleven 
months of the fiscal year up to May 31, $64,486,258 in gold, besides 
a shipment, probably of twice that, amount, in the interest-bearing 
bonds of the Government, States, and corporations, in the settlement 
of trade balances. 

" I do not know of the exact shipments of gold for June, but from 
unofficial reports judge it will be as heavy as in May, when it reached 
the enormous amount of $10,668,712, or an aggregate of over seventy- 
five million dollars for the fiscal year ending June 30. The entire 
estimated annual production of the precious metals in the United States 
and Territories is thus swept away, while we are still adding to our 
foreign indebtedness at the rate of perhaps §200,000,000 per annum. 



4 DANIEL J. MORRELL. 

We are constantly talking of a return to specie payments ; and 
there is scarcely a member of this Ilonse who has not presented a 
plan to accomplish that desired end, and yet the price of gold con- 
tinues to advance, and rules higher now than three years ago. 

" The necessities of the country demand some practical legislation 
in the interest of our own people, and especially such legislation as 
will tend to check over importations, employ our own labor, and pre- 
pare the way to a safe return of specie values. In the absence of a 
thorough revision of the revenue laws, looking to greater protection, 
and the suppression of frauds on the Government, the passage of this 
simple and brief hill will do some good, and I trust there will be no 
opposition to it." 

"We have already alluded to the enterprise and efficiency of Mr. 
Morrell as a member of the House. No man there works harder in 
the committees ; and when he speaks, he is listened to with attention, 
it being well understood that he is master of the subjects on which he 
dilates. He affords a most gratifying illustration of the benefit which 
the public councils may derive from the practical and experienced 
views of a man actively interested in business affairs. 

Mr. Morrell is one of those men who have made their own way 
in life by the force of a strong and honorable character. His coun- 
tenance affords a vivid insight into his disposition and purposes, and 
shows him to be a man who thinks for himself. He is a man whose 
plans are always the result of reflection and sound practical judg- 
ment : and when once adopted, are carried forward and executed with 
unswerving resolution. Probably in the Avhole country there is no 
person with a clearer head for a great business enterprise, and cer- 
tainly there are none having more general information regarding 
the iron interest, banking, and the political affairs of the nation. 
Almost entirely self-taught, he has enriched his mind by the lessons 
of observation and experience, which have been afforded in his varied 
career as a merchant, manufacturer, banker, and statesman. 
350 




'*£*. j/e 



fd-fc vZiz-cz^ 



JOHN A. NICHOLSON. 



follN A. NICHOLSON was bom in Laurel, Sussex County, 
Delaware, November IT, 1827. Eis father and grand- 
father were natives of Delaware, and bis mother a native of 
Virginia. He was educated, in part, at an academy in Nelson 
County, Virginia, where his parents were residing at the time. In 
1S13 he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but left 
at the end of two years, without graduating. 

In 1847, Mr. Nicholson entered on the study of law, with Hon. 
Martin Bates, of Dover, Delaware, and was admitted to the bar in 
1850. He selected Dover as his place of residence, having previ- 
ously married Miss Angelica K. Eeed, of the same town. 

In 1850, he was appointed, by Governor Ross, Superintendent of 
the free schools of that county. After practicing law a few years, 
he devoted his time principally to general literature, leading a very 
quiet and secluded life, and repeatedly refusing to lie a candidate for 
any office. 

Yielding at length to the solicitations of friends, Mr. Nicholson was 
elected in 1864 to the Thirty -ninth Congress, and was re-elected to 
the Fortieth Congress, serving in the former on the Committee on 
Elections, and in the latter on the Committee on Appropriations. 

In politics, Mr. Nicholson has always been Democratic, and was a 
member of the National Democratic Committee, appointed in 1864. 

The style of Mr. Nicholson, as a speaker and writer, is chaste and 
forcible ; but by reason of his retired habits he is inclined to shrink 
from an active participation in debate. 

Pending the resolution to impeach the President, Mr. Nicholson 



2 JOHN A. NICHOLSON. 

made a speech against a measure which he characterized as " a foul 
wrong," and " the climax of those revolutionary acts which have 
marked the existence of the Republican party." After contending 
that the President could " only be impeached for a knowino- and 
willful violation of the Constitution or a law in pursuance there- 
of," he argued that the Tenure-of-Office Act was not such a law. 
" For the first time," said he, " in the history of the country has 
the Congress of the United States stooped from its high position to 
legislate directly for the interests of their party. With the powers 
of Congress they combine the spirit and ethics of a party convention. 
Their course to this end has been systematic since the surrender of 
Lee gave us hope of peace and union again. It was this instinct 
which first prompted them to refuse to restore the South to her place 
in the Union, knowing, as they did, that the vote of those States 
would be given against the Eadical candidate for President ; and they 
had not the hardihood, at that time, to hint even at the disfranchise- 
ment of whites and the enfranchisement of negroes to accomplish 
their purpose. Now their purpose is changed. Despairing of carry- 
ing more than half-a-dozen of the Northern States at the next elec- 
tion, they have turned to the South, and by the most arbitrary, cruel, 
and barbarous legislation that ever disgraced a civilized government, 
they have made of her a moral monster fit for their embrace. Every- 
thing that endangers the success of their scheme excites them to 
frenzy. They have now, Cortez-like, burned their ships, and their 
struggle is becoming desperate. 

" If the policy which is called the President's policy, but which is 
also the policy which common sense, justice, honor, and self-interest 
would have dictated, had been carried out in 1865, every scar 
made by the war would now have been healed, trade and commerce 
would now have been flourishing, the South would have been pour- 
ing her millions into the national Treasury, taxation would have 
been so diffused as scarcely to be felt ; but the blessing of a Radical 
President could not be conferred upon us in that condition of things." 

303 







— ^c 






GEOROK W. WOODWARD. 




k FTER a distinguished career and a successful public life in 
another field, Judge Woodward appears for the first time 
-xh^Qj among national legislators as a member of the Fortieth 
Congress. lie was born in Bethany, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1809. 
His family had settled in Pennsylvania before the Revolution. His 
two grandfathers formed part of a colony from Connecticut, which 
had occupied in 1774- the valley of the Wallenpaupack. Alter the 
massacre of Wyoming in July, 177*. the colonists were driven from 
their homes by the Tories and Indians. The women and children 
took refuge in the counties of Orange and Dutchess, in the'State of 
New York, while most of the men of the colony enlisted in the Revo- 
lutionary army. Jacob Kimble, the maternal grandfather of Judge 
Woodward, commanded a company in the Connecticut line through- 
out the war. After the close of the war, in 17S3, the survivors of 
the settlers returned to the valley of the Wallenpaupack, a region 
then remote and obscure, where they labored to re-establish their 
homes and retrieve their fortunes. 

The father of Judge Woodward was an industrious fanner, who 
struggled for years against poverty and adversity to maintain a large 
family. Before the birth of George, who was the youngest son, an 
event occurred which changed the entire fortunes of the family. As 
the father was returning from his work one evening, he fell upon his 
scythe and severed his hand from his body. By this accident Mr. 
Woodward was prevented from following his former pursuits, and 
was confined for several months while recovering from his wound. 
He occupied the time in reading, and improving his mind On his 
23 353 



2 GEORGE TV. WOODWARD. 

recovery, lie engaged in teaching school ; and having the confidence of 
his neighbors and fellow-citizens, he was soon chosen to public office. 
At the birth of bis son George, he was Sheriff of the county of "Wayne, 
and subsequently became Associate Judge, an office which he held 
until his death in 1829. 

In his childhood, young Woodward attended such schools as could 
be afforded in a community of struggling and straitened settlers. He 
subsequently enjoyed the instructions of an elder brother, who was 
for the time an accomplished mathematician, and gave his pupil the 
foundation of a thorough mathematical education. 

As soon as he attained a suitable age, he was placed at Geneva, 
New York, in the institution now known as Ilobart College. Here 
he was the classmate of Horatio Seymour, and other young men who 
have since become distinguished iu public life. From Geneva he was 
transferred to the "Wilkesbarre Academy, in the county of Luzeme, 
in Pennsylvania— an institution which offered to its pupils rare ad- 
vantages for acquiring thorough classical, mathematical, and scien- 
tific knowledge. 

Ending his academical pursuits in 1829, young AVoodward entered 
the office of the Hon. Garrick Mallery, as a student-at-law. In 1831, 
Mr. Mallery having been appointed Judge of a Judicial District, Mr. 
"Woodward, who had been admitted to the bar in the preceding year, 
occupied his office, and succeeded to his business. His success at the 
bar was very rapid and very great. "Within a very short time he was 
in full practice in the counties of Luzerne, "Wayne, Pike,Munroe, and 
Susquehanna, and in the Supreme Court of the State. 

In politics, Mr. Woodward was a member of the Democratic party. 
In 18:->6, he was elected a delegate to the Convention called to 
reform the Constitution of Pennsylvania. Its numbers included the 
most prominent leaders at the bar, judges who have been long upon 
the bench, and gentlemen who had held high positions in the State 
and National Governments. Mr. "Woodward was one of the youngest 
members of the Convention, yet he took a prominent and influential 
part in the debates. He advocated a limitation of the tenure of 



GEORGE W. WOODWARD. ;; 

office in the Judges of the State, who had been appointed fur lit'.-. 
He favored a modification of the Constitution, by which the right of 
suffrage was limited to the white inhabitants of Pennsylvania. 

At the close of the Constitutional Convention, Mr. Woodward 
resumed the practice of his profession. In April, 1841, he was ap- 
pointed by the Governor to the office of President Judge of the 
Fourth Judicial District. lie discharged the duties of his office 
with great energj ami ability for a term of ten years. 

In 1844, a vacancy occurring in the United States Senate, by the 
appointment of Mr. Buchanan to a place in the Cabinet of President 
Polk, Judge Woodward received the nomination of the caucus of 
Democratic members who composed a majority of the legislature. 
By the rules regulating the action of political parties, Judge Wood- 
ward was entitled to an election, but a sufficient number of Demo- 
crats deserted their nominee to secure the election of Simon 
Cameron. 

In March, 1845, a vacancy occurring in the Supreme Court for the 
Circuit composed of the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
President Polk nominated Judge Woodward to till the vacancy. The 
fact that this nomination had been made without consultation with 
Mr. Buchanan. Secretary of State, in connection with the hostility 
of Mr. Cameron, led to the defeat of Judge Woodward in the Senate. 
On the expiration of his term of office as President Judge of the 
Fourth Judicial District, in April, 1851, he resumed the practice of law 
iu his former office at Wilkesbarre. In May. 1852, he was appointed, 
by Governor Bigler, a Judge of the Supreme ( lourt of Pennsylvania. 
By a constitutional amendment adopted in 1850, this office had be- 
come elective, and the appointment therefore extended only to the 
first of December, 1 *.">:>. He was nominated as the Democratic can- 
didate, by the convention of the party, by acclamation. He now, for 
the first time, was able to submit his merits and his claims to the de- 
cision of the people of the State. It was found in his case that the 
man who is the last choice of the political managers, is the first 
choice of the mass of the voters. In the county of Luzerne, where 



4 GEORGE W. WOODWARD. 

lie bad spent Ills life, and in several adjacent counties, where he was 
intimately known, he received a larger vote than had ever been cast 
for a candidate in a contested election. He was elected by a majority 
in the State, which attested most emphatically his professional emi- 
nence, and his integrity of character. 

Few men in the country have occupied the Bench for a longer 
period than Judge Woodward. As a Judge, he soon reached a repu- 
tation deservedly high. lie possessed unusual powers of concentra- 
tion, and great capacity for labor. His style of discussing legal 
cpiestions is singularly forcible, distinct, and clear. Avoiding all 
affectation of fine writing, he says of a case just that which it is 
necessary to say in English that is always simple, accurate, and ele- 
gant. There are no opinions in the Pennsylvania Reports more in- 
telligible to plain and unlearned men than those of Judge "Wood- 
ward, and there are none more able, thorough, and exhaustive. 

In 1SG3, Judge Woodward received the unsolicited nomination of 
the Democrats of Pennsylvania as their candidate for Governor. 
Restrained by his judicial commission from taking an active part in 
the canvass, he encountered all the opposition the national adminis- 
tration could make, which at that stage of the war was considerable. 
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, he received 251,171 votes, the 
largest number which up to that time had ever been polled for any 
gubernatorial candidate. Many well-informed politicians believed 
then, and still believe, that this was a majority of the votes cast ; 
but a majority of 15,335 was certified to his competitor, Governor 
Curtin, and no scrutiny was ever instituted to test this return. 

As Mr. Woodward's term of office as Judge of the Supreme Court 
would expire in December, 1807, he gave notice as early as the pre- 
ceding January, that he should decline a re-election. In June, 1867, 
he went to Europe, and was absent several months. Soon after his 
departure, the death of Mr. Denison occurred, who had been elected 
to represent the Twelfth District of Pennsylvania in the Fortieth 
Congress. Judge Woodward was nominated to fill the vacancy, and 
was elected before his return from Europe. 

35C 



GEORGE W. WOODWARD. 5 

Taking his seat with the minority in the Fortieth Congress, in 
November, 1867, Judge Woodward at once took a high position as 
a clear, calm, and logical defender of the principles and policy of 
the Democratic party. 

His speeches in Congress have received marked attention from 
men of all parties. We have space for only a brief extract, which 
forms the conclusion of an impromptu speech delivered by Judge 
Woodward in the House of Representatives, March :i7. 1868, <>n the 
President's veto of the Kill withdrawing the McCardle case from the 
Supreme Court : 

"Here is an American citizen with the vested right to the judg- 
ment of that court, about, according to common rumor, to obtain 
favorable judgment, when the legislative department rushes in and 
takes the case out of the hands of the judicial department. It de- 
cides the case against the citizen. * * * This law prostrates all 
distinction between the coordinate branches into which the political 
power of this country was divided. It is no longer true that judicial 
power belongs exclusively to the judicial department. It is hence- 
forth true that the Legislature may invade the courts and stop the 
exercise of judicial power in proper judicial cases. In other words, 
Sir, the first principles of the Government under which we live are 
trampled under loot by this law. The Constitution, which we have 
sworn to support, is utterly disregarded by this law. Every man 
must judge for himself how that oath is to he performed, but I lay 
the Constitution across the path the majority are pursuing, and I re- 
mind them of their oaths. 

"' If reason hath not fled from man to brutish beasts,' I would 
like to see these positions either confessed or answered. Powers are 
distributed ; the judicial power (all of it) helongs to the courts ; 
jurisdiction in McCardle's case had attached ; the court were advising 
on the judgment to render ; the Legislature claims to take the case 
out of court, and thus in effect to decide it against McCardle. 

" Mr. Speaker, this is not the only liberty we have taken with the 
Supreme Court of the United States. At this session we passed a 



GEORGE W. WOODWARD. 



law which requires two-thirds of the judges of that court to unite in 
declaring any act of Congress unconstitutional. The Senate has not 
passed that hill, and I trust it never will. I took the liberty to ex- 
press my repugnance to it when it passed the House. I am glad the 
Senate has refrained from passing it. Why I Because it is a legis- 
lative interference with judicial functions. That is my great objec- 
tion to that law, as it is to this one. 

"Hook upon any interference on the part of Congress with the 
proper judicial tribunals not only as a great indelicacy, hut a most 
dangerous precedent. We have found it so in stripping the Execu- 
tive of his proper constitutional duties. The Tenure-of-Office act and 
several other laws, which place the Executive in the power of his sub- 
ordinates, have virtually destroyed the executive power of this Gov- 
ernment. The legislation to which I have referred, and this bill, are 
acts directed at the judicial department, and what do they portend I 
What are the people of the country to understand from such legisla- 
tion ? Just this: that the legislative department of the country is 
determined to consolidate all the powers of the Government into its 
own hands ; determined to consolidate this Government into a grand 
legislative oligarchy, the country to be governed by the Legislature, 
and the Legislature to be governed by a caucus, and the caucus to be 
governed by— the Lord knows who ; for I do not know who will suc- 
ceed my venerable friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] as ruler 
of this House when he shall depart. I hope he will be a man as wise 
and good as he is. 

" Sir, if this legislation means anything, it means just this : that 
the President shall not exercise the constitutional functions of his 
office, the judges shall not exercise the constitutional powers vested 
in them, but the legislative will shall be supreme; which I say is a 
repeal of the Constitution of the United States, and a consolidation 
of all the political power of this Government into the hands of a 
legislative oligarchy to be wielded I know not by whom." 

Spontaneously re-nominated in the fall of 1S6S, Judge Woodward 
was elected by an increased majority to the Forty-first Congress. 



3o8 




/r^ ^A^ Z/Zn^^ f 






"IGNATIUS DONNELLY. 



^#GXATIUS DONNELLY was born in Philadelphia, Xovem- 
tMi ber 3, 1831. He received an academical education, grad- 
% <M natingatthe Central High Scl L of his native city. In 

1849, he commenced the study of law with the Hon. Benjamin 

Harris Brewster, who in a recently published letter describes his 
former pupil as " a man of uncommon energy, skill, and strict integ- 
rity. 1 ' Having completed his law studies, in 1853, Mr. Donnelly 
devoted much time and attention to furthering the interests of the 
Union Land and Homestead Association, .if which he was Secretary. 
Upon Mr. Donnelly's removal from Philadelphia, a can! was pub- 
lished in the daily papers by order of the Association attributing its 
success to his exertions, and expressing the best wishes of the mem- 
bers for his prosperity. 

In 1857, Mr. Donnelly emigrated to Minnesota. Just before his 
removal to the West he left the Democratic party, with which he had 
been identified, and became a Republican. As the State of Minnesota 
was at that time Democratic, and the County where he went to reside 
was two to one Democratic, his change of party seemed unfavorable 
to any political aspirations he might have possessed. The result, 
however, proved more fortunate than the most sanguine hope could 
have anticipated. So favorable an impression did he make, that in 
1S59, two years after his arrival in the State, he was elected Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Minnesota. In 1861, he was re-elected to the 
same office. In 1862, he was elected a representative in the Thirty- 
eighth Congress. He was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth 
Congresses. In 1SCS, Mr. Donnelly was nominated for re-election to 
the Forty-first Congress, hut another Republican candidate entering 



2 IGNATIUS DONNELLY 

the field, both were beaten by a Democrat. The independant Re- 
publican candidate gave as one reason for opposing the re-election of 
Mr. Donnelly that he was " a candidate for the United States Senate, 
and surely had no good demand on the party to elect him to the 
House of Representatives merely as a stepping stone to the Senate, 
and to enable him the better to control votes in the contest.'' 

Mr. Donnelly has been an active and able member of the House, 
and his acts and speeches evince not only ability and energy, but are 
strongly marked by patriotic and philanthropic views. Among other 
speeches of his delivered in the Thirty-eighth Congress, was one on 
the " Reform in the Indian System," from which we present one or 
two brief selections : 

'• Let it not be said that the nation shall advance in its career ot 
greatness regardless of the destruction of the red man. There is 
room enough in the world, thank God, for all the races he has created 
to inhabit it. Thirty million white people can certainly find space 
somewhere on this broad continent for a third of a million of those 
who originally possessed the whole of it. "While we are inviting to 
our shores the oppressed races of mankind, let us at least deal justly 
by those whose rights ante-date our own by countless centuries. It 
is the destiny of the white man to overrun this world ; but it is as 
plainly his destiny to carry in his train the great forces which con- 
stitute his superiority, civilization, and Christianity. "We are exhibit- 
ing, to-day, the unequaled spectacle of a superior race sharing its 
noblest privileges with the humblest of mankind, and lifting up to 
the condition of freedom and happiness those who, from the date of 
time, have been either barbarians or slaves. 

"How shall the Indian — a nomad, a hunter, a barbarian — compete 
on the same soil, and under the same circumstances, in the great 
struggle for life with the civilized white man? Civilization means 
energy, industry, acuteness, skill, perseverance. Barbarism means in- 
dolence, torpidity, ignorance, and irresolution. How can the two be 
brought together, and the inferior not fall at once a sacrifice to the 
rapacity of the superior ? This is the problem before us. 



IGNATIUS DONNELLY. 3 

" The Government must interpose its merciful protection between 
weakness and power. It is doing so in the case of the black man ; 
let it deal as fairly by the red man. Without action by this Govern- 
ment, a thousand years would have left the slave of the South still a 
slave. Under wise and just laws he will swell at once the power of 
the nation, increase its resources, and adorn it, in time, with great 
names and honored services. We cannot afford to be unjust to any 
portion of mankind." 

< >n the 7th of May, 1868, Mr. Donnelly madeaspeech in favor of 
a bill to prevent the further sale of public lands, excepl a- provided 
for in the pre-emption and homestead laws. From this speech we 
make the following extracts : 

'•The first settler is the corner-stone of all future development ; 
the entire structure of society and government must rest upon the 
foundation of his labors. His work shall last till doomsday. He 
first unites the industry of man to the capabilities of the fertile 
earth. The tide of which he is the forerunning breaker, shall never 
recede — - Ne'er feel returning ebb. but keep due on ' — until the wil- 
derness is densely populated ; until every toot of land, however in- 
tractable, i- subdued : until the factories cluster thickly in great knots 
upon every falling stream; until cities, towns, and villages dot the 
whole land; until science, art, education, morality, and religion bear 
the world forward to a development far beyond the furthest ken of 
the imagination, into that unknown future of the human race which 
we cannot prefigure even in our dreams. 

" How many beautiful traits gather around these homes snatched 
from the wilderness ? How many fair women and noble men have 
seen the first light of heaven through the chinks of the log-house ? 
How many heroes worthy to be embalmed in perpetual history have 
grown up in sturdy independence of the forest and prairie ? By the 
side of such men the denizens of your cities are a dwarfed race. 
It needs pure air, pure sunshine, pure food, and the great stormy 
winds of heaven to produce the highest types of the human family. 

Sfil 



4 IGNATIUS DONNELLY. 

and to give to them that inflexible grain which is the first constituent 
of great characters. 

" Consider for one instant the part performed by the people of the 
West in the suppression of the rebellion. Their share of the great 
work Mas well done. Wherever they advanced, they overcame the 
rebellion as they overcame the wilderness ; they hewed it down, they 
out-worked it, they chopped it to pieces, they overwhelmed it with 
energy and industry, they bridged it, they corduroyed it, they blazed 
and burned it out of existence. The men whom nature in all its 
hard and stubborn moods could not resist, made easy victory over 
their misguided fellow-citizens fighting for slavery and against lib- 
erty and law. 

" They were types of thousands and tens of thousands of men 
through all the regions from which they came — the great West : 
quiet, unpretending men, steadfast and earnest, patiently fulfilling 
the appointed work which God has given them to do. 

" This nation needs more of such men. We must cherish the insti- 
tutions which have produced them. Their price is richer than ru- 
bies. They are the salt of a nation. Some one said to Croesus 
when he showed him his treasures : " But if one should come along 
with more iron, he would take all this gold." The prosperity of a 
people rests upon its manhood ; the gold can only repose upon the 
iron. Without this a nation is but. a conglomerate of sordidness and 
sensuality — a mixture of clay and brass, which must fall to pieces the 
moment a strong hand is laid upon it. 

" Now, what is the root of all this ? It is the pioneer driving his 
plow for the first time into the surface of the wilderness. The whole 
structure rests upon the occupancy and ownership of the land by the 
individual. Hence follow independence, self-respect, and all the in- 
centives to labor ; hence industry, intelligence, schools, society, de- 
velopment—not the hot-house development of the towns, but sturdy, 
healthy development, which has its roots in the earth, which expands 
in the family circle, and which brings strength and power to the best 
traits of human nature." 



LEONARD MYERS. 



«EONARD MYERS was born near Attleborough, Bucks 
County, Pennsylvania, Nov. 13, Jsl'T. Here the first ten 
years of his life were passed, after which his parents re- 
moved to Philadelphia. After receiving a liberal education, he 
entered the profession of the law, became solicitor for two municipal 
districts of that city, and in L854, upon the consolidation of the 
Districts into one municipality, he digested the ordinances applicable 
to the new government, under authority of City Councils. Previous 
to this he frequently contributed articles to the magazines of the 
day, and translated several works from the French. In 1862, he was 
elected a member of the Thirty-eighth Congress, from the Third 
District of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth 
and Fortieth Congresses. In October, 1868, again unanimously re- 
nominated by the Republicans of his District, he was defeated by a 
small majority which bore such evident marks of being fraudulent, 
that he at once took the testimony to prove himself legally elected 
and justly entitled to a seat in the Forty-first Congress. 

In June, 1865, Mr. Myers delivered in Philadelphia a memorial 
address on Abraham Lincoln, which was heard with marked atten- 
tion, and favorably noticed by the press throughout the country. 
The following extracts will give some idea of its merits : 

" Great occasions call forth the qualities of true greatness. Genius 
frequently culls opportunities for itself, but adversity is the crucible 
which tries men ; and when the storm comes and the waves run high, 
and the passengers begin to despair, the quiet faith, and bravery, and 
skill of him who guides the vessel through in safety, marks him dis- 
tinguished among his fellow-men. 

sea 



2 LEONARD MYERS. 

" Such an one was Abraham Lincoln. His life covering nearly 
all of the present century, lie stands in moral grandeur the foremost 
man of his time. 

" The past four years have been years of sad realities, of almost 
incredible romance, too. The stride of a century was not expected 
to do so much. More history has been crowded into them than will 
be told in tenfold their time. 

" Four years ago, American slavery falsified the Declaration of 
American liberty ; to-day that slavery is dead, and waits but the 
forms of burial. Four years ago, the art of war, known to us in 
earlier struggles, seemed to have been forgotten ; now, the most war- 
like people of the earth, we again relapse into the pursuits of peace, 
secured to us by the ordeal of battle. 

"Four years ago, civil strife, the crudest test of a nation, long 
predicted, long warded off, had not yet fairly burst upon our hitherto 
fortunate land ; but it came in all its fury, and with the world as 
spectators, some confiding, but more predicting disaster and political 
destruction ; we have passed through the fiery furnace, not unscathed 
it may be, yet purified and regenerate. Republican institutions have 
stood the trial. The sovereignty of the people — the right of the 
majority to rule, asserted in the beginning, has been vindicated to 
the end, even through rivers of blood. The Flag was the shibboleth ; 
but on its starry folds, in storm And sunshine, still floated ' the 
Union ,' — ' the People ! ' 

" And all along this terrible struggle every eye was bent, every 
thought turned to him who was at the helm — now in doubt or de- 
spondency, now in hope and confidence. 

'' Eemembering that a soft answer turneth away wrath, the cavil 
and the sneer fell harmless at his feet. With thanks for those who 
approved, he kept steadily onward. True as the needle to the pole, 
he only sought the salvation of his country, never forgetting the 
priceless legacy committed to his keeping, never doubting the justice 
<>f his cause or its final triumph, never taking a step backwards. 
And si i ho won the goal amid the hosannas of his countrymen. * * 
334 



LEONARD MYERS. 3 

''lie died in the very fullness of a well-spent lite, laid upon the 
altar of his country; just when a nation's thanks and a nation's love 
seemed to encircle him ; when the sneer had died upon the lip. and a 
world had learned to know the greatness of his heart and intellect ; 
when he had demonstrated that among freemen there can he no suc- 
cessful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and accomplished the 
task which he truly foreshadowed had devolved on none other since 
the da\ 3 of Washington. 

" The world contains no like record. A whole people stricken in 
the midst of the joy of victory and peace, to the innermost depths 
of grief, flags suddenly draped, the Bong of triumph hushed. Such 
sorrow never before trembled along the electric wire. 

" They took him hack to his home in the West, by the route which, 
hut little over four years since, he traversed amid the shouts of a 
people; they laid him in the great Hall of Independence he so 
revered, while from the belfry above the solemn dirge floated away 
into the night ; and ever as he was borne onward to his resting- 
place, through pageants of unutterable wo?, millions came quietly 
out to gaze upon his bier, or catch a glimpse of that dear face ; and 
women laid flowers upon his coffin, and strong men wept like 
children. 

'•Time may mellow the grief, hut the gratitude of a nation will 
endure for ever. Those who were dear to him must he cared for by 
his countrymen. Above all, let his death waken us to a new life, 
that henceforth treason shall he branded — a crime without a name- 
never in another generation to disgrace the land ; and when public 
virtue, and unsullied honor, and high principle need a synonym, let 
us remember Abraham Lincoln." 

Mr. Myers has taken an active part in the important measures of 
the Congresses of which he was a member. On the 21th of March, 
1866, he delivered an able speech on the " Acceptance of the Kesults 
of the War the true basis of Reconstruction," wherein he gave utter- 
ance to views several of which were adopted by the Congressional 
Committee on Reconstruction, and embodied in their "Report. He 
365 



4 LEONARD MYERS. 

was prominent in securing the acceptance by the Government of 
League Island as a naval station, delivering an effective speech on 
this subject in the House, on the 7th of June, 1S66. On the 29th 
of February, 1868, he ably and eloquently advocated the impeach- 
ment of the President, giving a brief and startling review of the 
wrongs which entitled Andrew Johnson to a prominent position 
among " instances of men in high places, who in the madness and 
egotism of their ambition forgot their better days, and only remain 
as a reproach on the pages of history." 

The main reliance of the President's advocates against this im- 
peachment was upon the alleged "construction" which it was 
generally admitted the First Congress gave to the Constitution in 
regard to the power of removal by the President, and which it was 
said the passage of it had reversed. Mr. Myers traced the history of 
the legislation on this subject, and claimed that the acts of 17S9-1792 
and 1795, which declare how vacancies in the Departments shall be 
filled when the President shall remove the principal officers, were in 
reality not constructions of the Constitution, but legislative grants of 
power which could be and had been repealed, showing that in that 
First Congress " the clause was only passed in the House by a close 
vote, and in the Senate by the casting vote of its presiding officer — 
all those against it protested such was not the meaning of the Constitu- 
tion, while sufficient of its supporters to have defended it, placed their 
vote upon the ground that they desired to confer this authority by la w." 

As a member of the Patent Committee, Mr. Myers has taken a 
warm interest in the inventors of the country, reporting and advo- 
cating several measures winch won notice in the scientific world. In 
the Fortieth Congress he was also appointed on the Committee of 
Foreign Affairs, from which lie reported and caused the passage of a 
Joint Eesolution appealing to Turkey on behalf of the gallant but 
unfortunate inhabitants of Crete. In this Congress he delivered a 
speech favoring the purchase of Alaska, which possesses special 
interest. After declaring himself favorable to the purchase, and 
referring to the opposition to it manifested in the House, he said: 



L E ( > X A R I) M V K Its 5 

'•Reject Alaska, aud there is scarcely a doubt that Russia, having 
once determined to part with it, would sell to England, and still less 
doubt that England to-morrow would seize the chance of taking it 
off our hands. 1 wonder what the American people would say to 
Mich a result ! If such must come, I will not be responsible for it. 

"The Britir-h empire, covering us on the north from ocean t<> 
ocean, would develop a formidable rival on the Pacific to that com- 
merce and trade which now can lie ours alone. The British North 
American possessions, now almost land-locked on the west, hold out 
little promise to the settlers, and Anglo-Saxon enterprise finds no 
incentive to exertion. Give it this new outlet, and you build up a 
permanent, because prosperous, rival, which, holding half the conti- 
nent, can never be dislodged. The people of the United State- are 
in no haste, but they look forward surely to the day when the starry 
flag, which they have followed alike in storm and in sunshine, shall 
cover the continent. That day will come in its own good time. Let 
us not retard it as we did in settling the Oregon boundary. Xo con- 
solidation of foreign empire must be allowed between these seas." 

Referring to the pretended worthlessness of the territory, Mr. 
Myers continued : 

•• When we acquired Louisiana by the treaty of Paris, a croaker 
of that day called it 'a dreary ami barren wilderness.' Yet this 
fertile province was divided into rich States of the Union ; and its 
noble stream, which, with the tributaries, forms an outlet for the pro- 
ductions of the mighty West, has a value world-wide, for the posses- 
sion of which the armies of freedom and slavery reddened its very 
water, now for ever dedicated to liberty. 

" California was called an ill-starred purchase and bad bargain; 
yet this same California, laden with wealth, its cereals and fruits 
unsurpassed, its vines bidding fair to rival those of France and Italy, 
came to us in less than three years a free young State, forming the 
first barrier on the southwest against the extension of slavery, which 
led us to its conquest. The 12,000,000,000 in gold it ha- added to 
the wealth of the world, sink into insignificance beside its geographi- 



6 LEONARD MYERS. 

cal advantages and their development, of which no doubt the pursuit 
of that wealth was the instrument. 

" ' But,' says my friend, 'Alaska is ia a bleak and northern region.'' 
Perhaps there is no commoner error than that latitude is the con- 
trolling element of temperature. I do not pretend to be a clima- 
tologist ; but it is well known that the southwest equatorial winds 
and thermal currents of the ocean produce on land what are known 
as isothermal lines; and the great hot currents which, lessened in- 
intensity, flow against the shores of Britain and Norway, are but 
different directions of those which lave the coast of Alaska. 

" With the fisheries which this acquisition will call into being and 
protect, a hardy-trained race of seamen will fit themselves to sail the 
ships which soon must dot the Pacific between us and Asia, exchang- 
ing the wonders of either shore, and be ready to man our vessels of 
war should the emergency arise. That trade is now beyond a ques- 
tion. American civilization has done what olden Europe failed to 
accomplish. It has unlocked the seclusion of China, as it is gradu- 
ally doing with Japan, until its population leaps the barrier of cen- 
times to come to our nearest border ; and even to-day China chooses 
America to lead her to the outer world. As the Occident thus clasps 
the Orient, and helps it shake off the custom of ages, the world will 
become more luminous by the contact, even as space is forgotten in 
the telegraphic sympathy which thrills the old and new in the same 
moment. These bonds must be cemented. Alaska must be ours ; 
and remembering that we hold our heritage in trust for posterity, let 
no man disdain to picture the day, distant though it may be, when 
over the continent of North America, from ocean to ocean, from the 
Arctic to the Antilles, the canopy of freedom shall cover one people, 
one country, and one destiny." 







-£s£&&» 



GEORGE F. MILLER. 



felORGE F. MILLER was born May 9, 1809. His birth-place 

^ was Chilisquaquc, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. 
J-LLfc- He was at an early age thrown upon his own resources, and 
by bis personal exertions and industry succeeded in obtaining an 
academic education. He then commenced the study of law under 
James F. Linn, Esq., of Lewisburg; and after admission to the bar, 
commenced his profession in the same town, and succeeded in secur- 
ing an extensive practice. 

Mr. Miller was from the first actively interested in politics, He^ 
was an " Old Line Whig," a great admirer of Henry Clay, and a strong 
protectionist in favor of American industry. When the Republican 
party was formed, be, with a large majority of the old Whig party, 
joined it, and has ever since been an active member. He applied 
himself, however, closely to his profession, and refused to become a 
candidate for any office until nominated for Congress. 

Mr. Miller took an active part in founding the university at Lewis- 
burg, Pennsylvania— a literary institution which has become one of 
the leading colleges of the country. In June, 1848, he was elected sec- 
retary of the Board of Trustees of this institution, and served in that 
capacity for sixteen years. 

In lSGi, Mr. Miller received the Republican nomination for Con- 
gress in the Fourteenth District. He was elected by a majority of five 
hundred and seventeen votes over his Democratic opponent, who was 
a member of the Thirty-eighth Congress. He was re-elected in 18G6 
by a majority of nearly three times that of his former election. 

' In the Thirty -ninth Congress, Mr. Miller was a member of the 
24 369 



2 GEORGE F. MILLER. 

Committee on Roads and Canals, as also of the Committee on 
Expenditures of the War. In the Fortieth Congress, he was a mem- 
ber of the Committee on Invalid Pensions, and of the Committee on 
Revolutionary Pensions and that of the War of 1812. 

Mr. Miller is nut an inactive member of the House, but gives evi- 
dence of keeping a watchful eve upon its proceedings. His speeches 
are, in general, brief, and marked by patriotism and good sense. We 
subjoin a specimen selected from his speech on Reconstruction, deliv- 
ered on the floor of the House, February 13, 1807. 

After noticing briefly the main provisions of the Reconstruction 
bill, Mr. Miller remarked that " the main arguments urged against 
the passage of this bill is that the proposed law is unconstitutional — 
that the said ten late rebellious States have organized governments, 
and, therefore, no power exists in Congress to extend over them mar- 
tial law to take the place of the civil law. I admit, Mr. Speaker, that 
this extraordinary power should only be exercised in extreme cases. 
It is, however, a universal rule among all civilized nations, that when 
the civil law is not strong enough to afford ample protection, the more 
powerful — to wit, martial law — must be resorted to ; and it is evident 
that these ten States present a case demanding such extreme mea- 
sures. The civil governments of which we hear so much were not es- 
tablished by the action of Congress, but under the auspices of Andrew 
Johnson, without any authority delegated to him for that purpose." 
Then, after showing that the Constitution and laws of the United 
States are the supreme laws of the land, Mr. Miller proceeds to ask, 
" Who, then, can make the laws ? Not the executive, as he possesses 
only the power to give or withhold his assent when bills are presented 
to him. It rests with Congress to pass laws ; and if the executive 
interpose the veto power, such bills can, notwithstanding such veto, 
become laws if the same shall be passed by a two-third vote in each 
house — thus showing clearly that the executive alone had no power 
under the Constitution to undertake to reconstruct these ten rebel 
States by establishing civil governments therein, and his acts in that 
matter were usurpation." 



GEORGE F. MILLER. 3 

"When the resolutions reported by the Committee on Beconstrue- 
tionforthe impeachment of the President were under consideration 
in the House, February 24, 18GS, Mr. Miller made a speech, from 
which we make the following extract : 

"And the question presented here. Mr. Speaker, is whether 
Andrew Johnson, President of the Dhited state-, ha- been guilty 
of such ' high crime- and misdemeanors,' or high misdemeanors, as 
will justify the House in preferring articles of impeachment against 
him, and sending him to the Senate for trial. It is to he deplored 
that this great Republic, not yet a century old, commencing with a 
population of less than three million-, and now reaching thirty-seven 
millions, should have placed in nomination and elected a man who 
fills the highest office in the gift of the people, who has become (as 
charged) so depraved, corrupt, and defiant to the laws as to render 
his impeachment necessary. When we look into ancient history, and 
see how republics that once flourished, and were the nurse; of arts 
and sciences, the fruitful mothers of philosophers, law-givers, and 
heroes, now lie prostrate under the iron Yoke of ignorance and bar- 
barism, and especially when we reflect that monarchical Governments 
look upon republics as a failure, and that France, though she strug- 
gled hard for a republican form of government, and shed immense 
quantities of blood in favor of that cause, is under the rule of an 
absolute monarch. 

'• It is enough to make us fear and tremble. But we are told by 
the historian, ' That nothing is insurmountable to the unconquerable 
hand of liberty when backed by public virtue and the generous reso- 
lution of a brave and willing people.' We, as a nation, must stand 
firm, and shrink from no duty, however painful. The highest officer 
of our Government is, and of right ought to be, as amenable to the 
Constitution and laws as any of our humblest citizens." 

Subsequently, March 2, 1S68, the Committee having, in obedience 
to instructions by the House, reported articles of impeachment, Mr. 
Miller made a speech in favor of their adoption, and at the same 
time offered two additional articles, which, he said, " in my opinion, 



4 GEORGE F. MILL Eli. 

save cavil ; and in presenting a case of such vast importance, ive 
ought to be cautious and allow no escape upon a mere technical 
objection ; and especially when we can lay every charge in such a 
way as to meet all legal objection that might be made, it is our duty 
to do so." 

Mr. Miller closed his speech on this occasion by saying : " The only 
question is as to the sufficiency of these articles, which, if approved 
by this House, are to be sent to the Senate, at whose bar it will 
devolve upon us to maintain the charges therein contained ; and I 
trust the trial may be conducted (as I have no doubt it will) with clue 
regard to its magnitude, so that the countiy and the world may see 
that this young Tiepublic, whenever assailed, will vindicate its in- 
tegrity, and that no officer thereof, however high, shall escape con- 
dign punishment, if guilty. And, in conclusion, let me say that I 
trust this great work may be entered upon with due deliberation, and 
that justice may be done to both the United States and the accused." 




/fc?/2tfe&^ 






WILLIAM B. ALLISOX. 




B f?ILLIAM B. ALLISON was born in Perry, Wayne County, 
( >hi< i. March 2, 1S29. Most of his boyhood was spent upon 
a farm. lie was educated at Alleghany College, Penn- 
sylvania, and at Western Beserve College, Ohio. He then entered 
on the study of law, and was admitted to practice in 1851. lie con- 
tinued the practice of law in Ohio until 1857, when lie removed to 
Dubuque, Iowa. He was a delegate in the Chicago Convention of 
1860 ; and, in 1SG1, he was a member of the Governor's staff, render- 
ing essential service in raising troops for the war. 

In 1S62, Mi-. Allison was elected from Iowa a Representative to 
the Thirty-eight Congress, and re-elected to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, 
and Forty-first Congresses. He has served on the Committee on Public 
Lands, Eoads and Canals, also on "Ways and Means, Mines and Mining, 
and Expenses in the Interior Department. 

The Congressional records show Mr. Allison to be vigilant and 
faithful in his duties in the House. His speeches evince sobriety 
and care, at the same time that they display ability and fearlessness 
in the advocacy of his views. 

Mr. Allison's speech, June 4, 1868, on the " Internal Tax Bill," 
while it evinces much ability, presents facts and statements of special 
interest to the country at large. The following extracts are selected 
in illustration : 

" Mr. Chairman, I fear we must resort to something more perfect 
if we would check the frauds on the revenue which exist in this coun- 
try to-day. I beg leave to differ with gentlemen on this side of the 
House as to the cause of these great frauds. I do not attribute their 

37.-! 



2 WILLIAM B. ALLISON.. 

commission to the division of responsibility. The Commissioner of In- 
ternal Revenue is a bureau officer under the Secretary of the Treasury. 
The Secretary of the Treasury is to-day the responsible head of 
the Department, charged with the collection of the revenue of the 
country. It is no defense for him to say that he does not know of the 
existence of these frauds. Is it not enough tin- him to know that there 
are produced in this country at least seventy-live million gallons of 
distilled spirits, and that but seven million gallons pay the tax dur- 
ing the fiscal year about to close \ Is it to be said that the respon- 
sible head of the revenue department — the Secretary of the Treasury 
— does not know that the reason why this revenue is not collected is 
because of frauds in his Department, and that he must wait for his 
subordinate officer to bring those frauds to his knowledge \ 

" I say the responsibility rests to-day upon the Secretary of the 
Treasury, unless he can shift that responsibility upon the President 
of the United States, where I believe it legitimately and properly be- 
longs. While I give the Secretary of the Treasury credit for integ- 
rity of purpose and purity of character, he is imfortunately too much 
of a partisan, or is not willing to assume the responsibility which is 
within his power and control. Many of these revenue agents be- 
long to what my colleagues on the Committee of "Ways and Means 
and others here denominate "the whisky ring." They are constantly 
roaming over the country and forming leagues, by which the Govern- 
ment is defrauded. * ' :: ' * 

" These men are not removed from office. I have been told that the 
Secretary of the Treasury makes representations to the President of 
the United States ; but I have yet to learn that a single man who has 
been engaged in these fraudulent practices has been removed by the 
President of the United States. Hence, Mr. Chairman, I think the 
chief reason for these frauds is inherent in our present political situa- 
tion, and that we never can get rid of them except in one way, that 
is by having harmony in the administration, and harmony in legisla- 
tion, and administration and legislation on the side of the Govern- 
ment." 

C71 



WILLIAM B. ALLISON. 3 

On the 29th of February, 186S, the House having under considera- 
tion the Articles of Impeachment, as reported from the Committee, 
Mr. Allison sustained them in a speech of which the following is an 
extract: 

''The President by the Constitution is especially enjoined to take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed, and he is therefore not only 
bound, as is every other citizen of the Republic, to observe the laws 
that may be passed from time to time, but has the higher duty im- 
posed upon him <>f seeing to it that every citizen obeys the laws ; and 
if he can set at defiance this law, lie may with equal propriety disre- 
gard any law that may be found upon the statute-books, and set up 
in defense that he regards the law as unconstitutional. The very 
nature of the executive office requires him to obey the law, as it is 
involved in the executive authority conferred upon him by the Con- 
stitution, and as such executive officer he is bound to execute the 
laws, whatever may be his individual opinion as a citizen with refer- 
ence to their constitutionality ; and a failure on his part to execute 
any law not declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the 
United States, is to violate his oath of office, which compels him to 
take care that the laws be faithfully executed. 

'• "When laws are duly made and promulgated, they only remain to 
be executed. Xo discretion is submitted to the executive officer. It 
is not for him to deliberate and decide upon the wisdom, expediency, 
or constitutionality of the law ; that power he has exhausted when 
he returns a bill, with his objections, to the House in which it origin- 
ated. What has been once declared to be law under all the cautions 
forms of deliberation prescribed by the Constitution, ought to receive 
a prompt obedience ; and a failure to obey in the President should be 
regarded as a high misdemeanor in office." 

After having referred particularly to the President's violation of 
the Tenure-of-Office Act, Mr. Allison concluded as follows : 

" But, Mr. Chairman, this is but one link in a long chain of usur- 
pations on the part of the President. It is but a chapter (I hope the 
last) in the history of a great conspiracy, begun by the President in 



4 WILLIAM B. ALLISON. 

December, 18(35, and continued in perseveringly to the present mo- 
ment, to turn over the Government of at least ten States, if not of 
the whole country, to the enemies of the Republic. 

" It is possible the first act by which he has brought himself within 
the provisions of a criminal statute, but only one of many instances 
in which he has used the powers of his high office to thwart the will 
and judgment of the people. He has attempted to usurp to himself 
the absolute control of the rebel States, and has sought by every 
means possible to thwart the execution of the humane laws passed 
tur their restoration to the Union. Under his guidance, life, liberty, 
and property in those States have been put in jeopardy ; and the spirit 
of rebellion, though dormant, is as strong as during the war, all be- 
cause this spirit. has in him an advocate. Shielded and protected and 
powerful, because he happens to hold the Presidential office, he has 
tried in various ways to secure the Army to sustain him ; and foiled 
in every way, under the forms of law he now seeks to wrest it by 
force, thereby seeking to place the "War Department and the Army 
under the control of a weak, irresolute old man, who will do his bid- 
ding. In the meantime every material interest of the country is suf- 
fering, because this man persists in retaining in office men who are 
utterly unworthy of place. The country wants peace, and peace it 
cannot have while this criminal remains in office. If we allow this 
last act or acts of usurpation to pass without applying the peaceful 
constitutional remedy, we may naturally expect that these usurpations 
will continue, until republican government itself will be destroyed, 
and upon its ruins a dictatorship established in the interest of the 
worst enemies of liberty and law." 

376 



/ 







^^ 



^^^ 



BENJAMIN" M. BOYER. 



VjrajlENJAMIN' M. BOYER was born in Montgomery County, 
^Jjsgi Pennsylvania, January 22, 1S23. He was for some time a 
J?L Btodent of Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania; but 

afterwards graduated at the University of Pennsylvania. He read 
law at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, under the instruction of the late Judge 
Reed, and was admitted to the bar at that place. He began the 
practice of law, however, in his native county, for which he was Dis- 
trict-Attorney from ISIS to 1850. Here he successfully pursued his 
profession, having several times declined judicial stations. 

In politics, Mr. Boyer was a "Whig until the dissolution of the 
Whig party, when he associated himself with the Democracy. In 
1856, he voted for James Buchanan for President, against John C. 
Fremont, the Republican candidate, and since that date has always 
acted with the Democratic party. 

In 1860, Mr. Boyer was an active supporter of Judge Douglas for 
the Presidency, and aided in establishing a campaign newspaper called 
the National Democrat, which was the organ of the Douglas Democ- 
racy of his county during the Presidential canvass of that year, and of 
which he was, until after the election, the principal editor. 

Mr. Boyer, previously to the breaking out of the Southern rebel- 
lion, advocated conciliatory measures. But after the war had actually 
begun, he was an active and earnest advocate of the suppression ot 
the rebellion by force of arms. In addresses to the people, of all parties, 
at various public meetings, as well as in communications through the 
press, he urged the energetic support of the Government, and the 
prompt enlistment of men. 



2 BENJAMIN M. BOYER. 

Twice during the war, when Pennsylvania was invaded by the 
rebels, he raised a company of volunteers for the emergency, and, as 
their captain, served with them in the field, by which service he con- 
tracted an illness which nearly terminated his life. 

In 1S61, Mr. Boyer was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, and 
was re-elected in 1866. He has maintained with zeal and ability the 
usual Democratic view of the prominent questions which have come 
before that body. 

In the Fortieth Congress, March 13, 1S67, a joint resolution being 
under discussion in the House " for the relief of the destitute in the 
Southern and Southwestern States," Mr. Boyer said, " I trust that 
this joint resolution will be adopted ; that it will be passed promptly, 
and with unanimity. I am not deterred from supporting it by the 
reasons given by the gentleman from Indiana, based upon the fact 
that those who are to be recipients of this bounty are the families of 
rebels, nor by the arguments of the two gentlemen from New York, 
that this fund is to be distributed through the Freedmen's Bureau. 
* * If the channel which is provided in this resolution for the distri- 
bution of the fund be objectionable, the answer is that it is the only 
channel immediately available for the purpose. If gentlemen on 
this side of the House are opposed to the Freedmen's Bureau, let 
them not object to its being converted into an instrumentality of use- 
fulness and mercy. * * While we are talking, some of our coun- 
trymen at the South are gasping, it may be, in the agonies of death 
for want of the food which we are asked, out of our abundance, to be- 
stow upon them. The Freedmen's Bureau, if it honestly distributes 
this fund, is the very best agency by which it can be dispensed, because 
it is already organized and in actual operation. 

In the second session of the Fortieth Congress, Mr. Boyer was a 
member of the Select Committee to investigate the New Orleans riots, 
and made the minority report upon that subject. 

In the Fortieth Congress he was perhaps the most prominent and 
zealous as a defender of the President, than any other member of the 
minority. His speeches in defense of the President were extensively 

378 



BENJAMIN M. BOYER. 3 

circulated by his party. The first was delivered December 17, 1867, 
and was published under the title of " The President and Congress 
— The Impeachers Impeached."' " What public man," he asked on 
this occasion, "exercising the office of President of the United States 
at so critical a period, could have undergone a scrutiny like that to 
which Andrew Johnson has been subjected, and emerged from the or- 
deal more scatheless than he 1 During more than eight months a se- 
cret inquisition assiduously labored to convict him of something, no 
matter what, so it would injure him in the estimation of mankind. 
His persecutors were able men. armed with the power of the nation, 
and suspected by no man of any disposition to spare the accused. 
The secret history of his public acts was explored, his most private 
relations invaded, his personal correspondence ransacked, the revela- 
tion of his most confidential conversations in his most unguarded mo- 
ments required of his friends, his domestic life investigated, his pecu- 
niary transactions overhauled, and even his private bank accounts ex- 
amined. To get evidence against him the felon's cell was visited by 
honorable members of Congress, and testimony solicited at the hands 
of convicted perjurers. Spies and detectives were employed, traps 
set, money expended — but all in vain. Andrew Johnson, as man and 
President, stands higher this day in the estimation of his countrymen 
than when this investigation began. I would rather take his chance 
for honorable and enduring fame hereafter than that of the proudest 
and loftiest among all his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. 

" He was not the President of my choice. I did not vote for him. 
But I recognize in him a fearless defender of the Constitution, and 
a- such I honor and defend him. As such, too, he will be remem- 
bered and honored by his countrymen when the political strife of 
these days shall be over, and when his administration of public 
affairs shall have passed into history." 

Mr. Boyer made a speech in defense of the President: at the ban- 
quet of the 8th of January, at the Metropolitan Hotel in AVashington, 
in response to one of the regular toasts — " The President of the 
United States," On the 22d of February, Mr. Boyer made a legal 
379 



BENJAMIN M. BOYER. 



argument defending the President against the charges preferred in 
the Articles of Impeachment. Two of his later speeches in the 
House of Representatives were extensively circulated by his party as 
campaign documents, viz., that on " The Admission of Alabama," 
delivered March IT, 186S, and that of June 30, 1868, on " The Pub- 
lic Expenditures." From the first we make the following extracts : 

" It is only by gradual descent through many downward steps that 
so low a depth of legislative depravity could possibly be reached. 
That the sovernment of a negro minority should, without the consent 
and against the protest of the people, be inflicted by an American 
Congress upon a State in the American Union, is a spectacle too mon- 
strous to be endured. * * * Is this the Union which this Repub- 
lican Congress promised to restore when they summoned the nation 
to arms for the suppression of the rebellion ? Did Congress not then 
proclaim, and was it not the rallying cry of the Northern hosts, and 
the hope of all patriots, that the Union should be restored with all 
the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired ? If 
such conditions of inferiority as are prescribed by the pending bill can 
be imposed by Congress upon a State in one particular, where is the 
limit to the absolute power of Congress to impose every other? But 
why should we 1 ie surprised \ Is not one-third of the nation in chains, 
and has not this same Congress abolished the government of the people 
in ten States \ " * * * 

" For this nation there is but one way of salvation open. Abstract 
principles of law, justice, and morality are of little avail ; and against 
the inexorable tyranny of party discipline it has been our sad experi- 
ence to see the judgments and consciences of the more moderate men 
of the dominant party oppose but a feeble resistance. It is the peo- 
ple only who can arrest the usurpations which threaten to overwhelm 
and subvert the institutions of our country. And when we of the 
minority, who are so powerless in this Hall, are permitted to speak, 
we have no other resort than to appeal as best we can to that mighty 
audience outside the walls of this Capitol, who can, if they will, still 

save the Republic." 

380 



JOSEPH W. McOLUEG. 



'OSEPII W. McCLUKG was Lorn in St. Louis County, Mis- 
souri, February 22, ISIS. lie was educated at the Miami 
University, Ohio, and subsequently spent two years in teach- 
ing in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1S41, he went to Texas, where 
lie was admitted to the bar. and became Clerk of a Circuit Court. 
In 1S44, he settled as a merchant in Missouri. At the outbreak of 
the civil war, he suffered severe losses at the hands of the rebels, and 
abandoning his business, served in the army for a time as Colonel of 
Cavalry. He was a member of the Missouri State Convention of 
L862, and was in that year elected a Representative from Missouri 
to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected in 1864, and 1866. 
In the summer of 1S6S, Mr. McClurg having been nominated by 
the Republicans of Missouri as their candidate for Governor, re- 
signed his seat in the Fortieth Congress. After an active and exciting 
canvass, Mr. McClurg was elected Governor of Missouri, a position 
which his ability and honesty eminently fitted him. 

On the 28th of January, 1868, the subject of -Southern Land 
Grants " was before the House, comprised in the bill declaring for- 
feited to the United States certain lands granted to aid in the con- 
struction of railroads in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Florida. 

In the debate on this subject, Mr. McClurg showed very conclusively 
from the testimony of competent witnesses, that nearly all the 
officers and stock-holders of those railroads were disloyal during the 
war ; that the roads were voluntarily relinquished to the rebels for 
military piirposes, and, therefore, the forfeiture to the United States 
of the lands that had been previously granted for building and sus- 
taining them, was but a matter of right and justice. 

381 



2 JOSEPH W. McCLURG. 

In the course of his speech on the question, Mr. Clurg remarked : 
" The principle upon which I presume the House will act, will not 
be changed by any information that may be obtained. As I under- 
stand it, the principle grows out of the fact that the former States 
named in the bill declared themselves separated from the Government 
which made such munificent grants, and arrayed themselves in 
armed hostility to the Government. 

" On this point the House needs no other testimony than the letters 
of blood written on every page of our country's history during the 
four years of desolating war. These former States erected for them- 
selves a government and confederated together for rebellion, thus 
forfeiting all claim to the kind consideration of the parent Govern- 
ment which they in their madness attempted to destroy." 

To a member e>cpressing himself as not in favor of punishing a 
whole people without trial or jury, Mr. McClnrg responded : " I 
am as desirous as any gentleman can be whose friends have in- 
vested capital in corporations controlled by rebels, knowing them to 
be such, and prepared, of course, to take the responsibility — I am as 
desirous as they can be to see the prosperity of the South return, as 
well as that of all portions of our common country. It is that very 
desire, I would say to the gentleman from Wisconsin and to others, 
that our common prosperity may never again be interrupted by those 
who attacked the life of the Union and stagnated its channels of com- 
merce. I almost feel willing that God shall visit, as I have no doubt 
He will, that land with desolation, as He visited in times of old those 
who knew him not, until they shall return to their duty to humanity, 
and come out from the tombs of corruption where they have so long 
dwelled. And that is my answer to the gentleman from "Wisconsin. 
When they shall have done that, and shown unmistakable signs of 
returned reason, sitting in their proper places by their own voluntary 
action, clothed in garments of loyalty, then I shall, in any legislation, 
be willing to treat them as loyal States ; but not till then. Northern 
capital did not prevent them from throwing off their loyal garments, 
and we have no assurance it will aid in putting them on." 



JOSEPH W. McCLl'RG. 3 

In the Thirty-ninth Congress Mr. McClurg was appointed Chair- 
man of the Select Committee on the Southern Railroads, and held 
the same position in the Fortieth Congress. In the prosecution of 
the arduous duties imposed upon this Committee, a large amount 
of important testimony was taken. On the 7th of February, 186S, 
Mr. McClurg made to the House an able and elaborate report setting 
forth the relations which the Southern Railroads sustained to the 
Government, and recommending that measures be taken to prevent, 
so far as possible, the injury which would result from the act of the 
executive in returning Railroads to their rebel owners without "au- 
thority in law." From this report we make the following extract : 

•• While the committee have much respect for the high officials 
who advised restoration, they are constrained to express the opinion 
that, in the exercise of their magnanimous liberality in the disposal 
of property not their own, they lost sight of jxistice, and were misled 
by too high an estimate of the character of the enemy that had delib- 
erately assailed the Government. It should have been borne in mind 
that the war of rebellion was waged to perpetuate human oppression 
by those who, with their ancestors, had for many years gratified that 
disposition to oppress that destroys all the noble sentiments and feel- 
ings of the soul. This seems to have been forgotten. 

" The high standing socially, and, in time past, politically, of rail- 
road presidents and directors, and the influence which wealth and 
intelligence ever give, seem to have caused sight to be lost of the 
enormity of the crime of treason, so much so that while the only 
horse of a poor, ignorant man, led into the rebellion by this very 
intelligence, is retained and never returned, these engines of 
power, this wealth amounting to one hundred and twenty-three mil- 
lion dollars and over, is returned to the intelligent, wealthy, and 
influential, whose only magnanimity had been to surrender when 
they could no longer fight — returned, too, before the basis had been 
determined upon for their return as citizens under recognized govern- 
ments of States restored to the Union. 

" If desiring to renew rebellion, what more in the premises could 

0S0 



± JOSEPH W. McCLURG. 

these former enemies have desired than they have received ? Roads 
repaired and constructed, equipped, made ready for profitable use, 
and returned ! 

" An individual would consider it blind policy to put his enraged 
antagonist upon his feet and restore to him his deadly 'weapon. It 
would be considered madness in a keeper to turn from the cage an 
untamed beast, with food administered to strengthen him for another 
effort to take his life. 

" Is the life of the nation less precious, or maddened rebel enemies 
less to be dreaded ? And those who regard oaths of loyalty as safe- 
guards, would do well to remember that almost yesterday there were 
in the halls of Congress those who disregarded oaths, and, by con- 
cocting treason, blackened their souls with perjury. 

" The policy in the past had been, with all governments, to im- 
poverish an enemy. In the cases being considered, it has been to 
enrich. The policy pursued can only be justified on the ground of 
magnanimity and charity — charity blinded to justice ; and such 
magnanimity can only be excused, if at all, under supposition of 
bewilderment growing out of the magnitude of the war, and the 
momentous questions connected with it and growing out of recon- 
struction. 

" The desire for peace was laudable ; but that had been conquered. 
The desire for general prosperity was praiseworthy, and may have 
shown goodness of heart ; but justice and the security of after gener- 
ations forbid rewards for treason." 

384 




/%/, 



/-ty 






SAMUEL F. CAET. 




M 1 1 E subject of this sketch is a lineal descendant of John Cary, 
of the Plymouth Colony. His father, William Gary, emi- 
grated from New Hampshire to the Northwest Territory 
before Ohio became a State. His mother. Rebecca Fenton, was a 
native of the State of New York, and was a sister of Governor 
Fenton's father. 

Samuel Fenton Cary was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 18, 
1814. In the same year his father removed to a farm in the wilder- 
ness, six miles from Cincinnati. The place is now known as College 
Hill ami is the seat of Farmers' College, founded by Freeman G. 
Cary, and the Ohio Female College, established by Samuel F. Cary, 
two brothers who, with rare taste and public spirit, expended their 
patrimony in rearing these noble institutions as monuments on the 
paternal estate. 

Young Gary was graduated at Miami University, in the class of 
1835. Shortly after his graduation he entered the Cincinnati Law 
School, and received its honors in 1837. He was immediately admit- 
ted to practice, and at once took rank with the first young members 
of the Cincinnati bar. His practice rapidly increased, and when he 
relinquished the profession in 1815, no man of his age in the State of 
Ohio had a larger business, or more enviable reputation as an advocate. 
Obeying his philanthropic impulses, Mr. Cary abandoned the bar, 
in spite of the remonstrances of his numerous admirers, and began to 
devote all his energies to the cause of Temperance. In behalf of 
this great reform, he has made more public addresses, has been 
heard by a greater number of persons, and has made larger contribu- 
tions of time and money than any other man in the United States. 



385 



A 



2 SAMUEL F. CARY. 

He has been repeatedly heard in all the principal cities and towns 
in twenty-six States, and all the British Provinces in North America. 
No less than 400,000 have been induced by him to sign the pledge of 
total abstinence, and a multitude that no man can number bless his 
name. 

Mr. Gary early became a Son of Temperance, and in 1848 was 
chosen the head of the Order in North America. During the two 
years of his official term, he visited twenty-two States and Provinces, 
and the Order was more than doubled in the number of its member- 
ship. For twenty years he was the gratuitous editor of Temperance 
papers of large circulation, and has written several valuable tracts that 
have been widely distributed and read. 

As early as 1840, Mr. Cary acquired a great reputation as a politi- 
cal speaker, and took a prominent and active part in the Harrison 
campaign. In every Presidential campaign since that time his ser- 
vices have been sought and appreciated. There is probably not a 
man in the United States who is his superior on the stump. During 
the late civil war he was indefatigable and very successful in his 
efforts to fill up the ranks of the Union Army. 

His style of speaking is peculiarly his own. A distinguished 
writer has said of him that " he speaks like a Greek, with the ease, 
the grace, the naturalness of the ancient orators." His speeches are 
the happiest combination of logic, argument, wit, sarcasm, pathos, 
apt illustrations, and felicitous anecdotes. He plays upon the pas- 
sions and feelings of an audience with consummate skill. His per- 
sonale gives force to his utterances. He is five feet eleven inches in 
height, weighs two hundred pounds, has dark complexion, alarge head, 
with an unusual amount of hair, large black and speaking eyes, with 
a full, clear, and well-modulated voice. He never becomes hoarse, 
never tires, and often speaks three or four hours in the open air for 
successive days and weeks. He uses no notes or manuscripts, and 
weaves in every passing incident with most happy effect. 

It had with many been a matter of surprise that with the eminent 

talents and ability of Mr. Cary, Ohio had for so long a time failed to 

338 



SAMUEL F. CARY. 3 

avail herself of his services in the national councils. Two reasons 
for this have been given ; first, that his ambition did not take that 
direction ; and secondly, that his prominence as an advocate of a 
grea>t moral reform has led political managers to imagine that he 
would not be an available candidate. 

In the summer of 1867, the Republicans of the Second Ohio 
District very generally expressed a desire to have Mr. Cary as their 
candidate for Congress. Distrust in his availability, however, in- 
duced some of the leaders of the party to take ground against him, 
and the Republican Congressional Convention gave the nomina- 
tion to Richard Smith, Esq., editor of the Cincinnati Gazette. Mr. 
( arv was induced to go before the people as an independent 
candidate. The city of Cincinnati was greatly excited by the 
contest which ensued. Mr. Cary made numerous public ad- 
dresses. He avowed himself the champion of the working-men. 
He advocated making eight hours a legal day's work, and issuing 
greenbacks to replace the interest-bearing bonds of the Government. 
Mr. Cary receiving the votes of most of the Democrats of the Dis- 
trict, and some of the Republicans, was elected by 959 majority. 

In October, 186S, Mr. Cary was a candidate for re-election to the 
Forty-first Congress. Taking no part in Presidential politics, but 
running as the champion of the working-men, without regard to party, 
in a District giving 3,600 majority for Grant, he was defeated by less 
than 500 rotes, gaining largely upon his former vote. In the Fortieth 
Congress, Mr. Cary took a prominent part. He opposed the impeach- 
ment of the President. In a speecli of live minutes he presented his 
views of this subject as follows : 

" If I comprehend the question, it is not whether President 
Johnson is a traitor to the party which placed him in power, nor 
whether he has prevented the reconstruction of the Southern States, 
responsible for the New Orleans riots, and for the assassinations of 
loyal men, nor whether he is a bad man generally and unfit to be 
trusted. We do not arraign him before the high court of impeachment 
on the common counts, but for an unlawful effort to rid himself of a 



> 



SAMUEL F. CAIiY, 



Cabinet Minister, or, to state the ease strongly, for an open and 
deliberate violation of the Tenure-of-Office law. The Cabinet of the 
President constitute his constitutional advisers, and should obviously 
consist of men with -whom the President can have unreserved and 
confidential intercourse. To force upon the President a Cabinet 
Minister who is openly and avowedly an enemy of his administration, 
and one with whom the President can have no intercourse, is mani- 
festly so unfair and improper that no fair-minded men, not influenced 
by a malignant partisan zeal, can or will justify it. 

"I must not be understood as impeaching the ability, integrity, 
and patriotism of Secretary Stanton. All these are fully established. 
As a War Minister, history will accord to him the first place. I doubt 
whether his equal lias lived in any age. Deeply as we may regret a 
rupture between the President and his Minister of War, it did 
occur, and it is not our present duty to inquire who was in fault. The 
Senate restored Mr. Stanton to the office from which he had been 
removed by the President, and I do not arraign that body for their 
action. If, at that juncture, when Mr. Stanton was vindicated by the 
Senate, he had gracefully bowed himself out of the President's 
household, he would have had the sympathy and confidence of the 
people, and would have added magnanimity to his list of patriotic 
virtues. Either upon his own motion, or acting by the advice of others 
(most probably the latter), he chose to remain unbidden as a confi- 
dential adviser of the President. There has been such a manifest 
want of courtesy, such a persistent and dogged determination to 
badger and bully the President, that the people will condemn Stanton, 
and sympathize with, if they do not justify, the President, however 
much they may despise him. 

" In the present aspect of the case, my desire is that the Supreme 
Court, our highest judicial tribunal, shall be invoked to decide the 
rights of the President under the Constitution, and the constitutionality 
of the Civil-Tenure bill. If the Supreme Court shall decide that the 
Civil-Tenure bill is constitutional, and that it applies to the members 
of the Cabinet, and that the President must have a confidential 

S8S 



B AMU EL F. CARY. 5 

adviser whom lie never appointed, and whom he does not want, then 
he must submit, or I will unite with you in an effort to hurl him from 
his position. I would vote for this resolution if the case could not he 
1 1 11 m ■ properly adjudicated elsewhere. We have more important work 
than this. A million of men and women, able and willing to work, 
are to-day without employment, without food, and without shelter in 
this land of boundless resources. 

"We cannot afford to spend these precious days, these — to our 
constituents — very long and weary days, in deranging still more every 
industrial interest of the country, in settling a difficulty between the 
President and his Cabinet Minister, which can be more satisfactorily 
settled by a judicial tribunal which has been organized, under our Con- 
stitution, for this verv purpose. These proceedings will plunge the 
whole country into still deeper distress, and paralyze still more every 
branch of business, and we will be deservedly held responsible for all 
the calamities which may follow. Mr. Speaker, I fear for the safety 
of the Republic, and my only hope is in the people, who are in 
authority over us, and in the God of nations, who will make the 
wrath of man to praise Him, and restrain the remainder of that 
wrath." 

Mr. Gary's views on the financial question were clearly set forth in 
a speech delivered in the House, January 7. 1868, from which we 
make the following extract- ; 

" I venture the opinion that there is a great deficiency in the vol- 
ume of currency. In no country in the world is the supply so small, 
when compared with the commerce and the various enterprises re- 
quiring money. England, according to the most, judicious estimates, 
has twenty-five dollars per head for her inhabitants ; France has thirty ; 
while we have about thirteen dollars. Estimating greenbacks at 
$370,000,000, and national bank notes at $300,000,000, our total 
volume is $670,000,000. Of this sum it may be fairly presumed there 
is always in the Treasury or in the banks, and not therefore availa- 
ble as a circulation, $170,000,000, which leaves only $500,000,000 
with which to conduct the commerce of forty million people, seat- 



6 SAMUEL F. CART. 

tered over a continent. And where is this small amount of circula- 
tion ? Little New England has more than one-fourth of it ! "With 
about one-twelfth of the population, she has one-third of the national 
bank monopoly. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with a population 
more than twice as great as New England, have but little more than 
one-third her money circulation ; and the vast empire south of the 
Potomac and Ohio, and west of the Mississippi, containing two-fifths 
of our entire population, has been allowed one-ninth interest in the 
gigantic bank scheme. The city of Boston, having about one-half the 
population of Cincinnati, has ten times her money facilities, the 
former having §40,000,000 of national bank capital, and the latter 
$4,000,000,000. Even Philadelphia, the second city in the Union in 
population, wealth, commerce, manufactures, and enterprise, four 
times as large as Boston, has less than half the interest of the latter in 
the great monopoly. Have Boston and New England too much 
money ? I have heard of no such complaint. If not, how must it, 
be with thirty States and Territories with a population four times as 
great, with less than one-third her circulation ? 

" The way to get back to a specie basis, then, is not by contracting 
our currency, but by importing less goods from abroad, and sending 
larger installments of our production. We must encourage labor, 
increase production, diversity our home industries, develop our agri- 
cultural and mineral resources, and then, in spite of the money- 
changers and gold-gamblers of "Wall Street, and $1,000,000,000 of 
greenbacks, coin would approximate in value to our national circu- 
lating medium," 




(3 Ar^uM^ 



CHESTER D. HUBBARD. 




JHESTEB D. HUBBARD was bom in Hamden, Connecti- 
cut, Nov. 25, 1814. In the following year, his father re- 
moved to "Western Pennsylvania, ami, in 1819, to Wheeling, 
Virginia. Here young Hubbard prepared for college, and then en- 
tered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., where he 
graduated in 1840. He then returned to "Wheeling, and engaged in 
business pursuits. He was interested in the manufacture of lumber 
and iron, and was for several years President of the Bank of 
Wheeling. 

Mr. Hubbard was a Whig in politics, and. in 1 "■>.">:.', was elected to 
the lower house of the Virginia Legislature, where he won esteem 
and confidence for a devotion to principle which was to bring him 
forward, in due time, to a wider field of usefulness. 

During the stormy period which preceded the rebellion in Vir- 
ginia, and when it not unfrequently cost a man his life to proclaim 
his adherence to the General Government, Mr. Hubbard was clear and 
outspoken. In 1861, he was elected a delegate to the Richmond 
Convention, which passed the ordinance of secession. To the inqui- 
ries propounded to him as to his views, and the course he would pur- 
sue in that Convention, he published a letter in the Wheeling Intelli- 
gencer, of which the following is an extract : 

" I realize that in the present condition of affairs much will de- 
pend on the course Virginia shall adopt. If she be found faithful — 
and who can doubt it ? — to herself and the Union, all may be saved. 
If she wavers, and turns her back on the work of her own hands, all 
is lost ; and the dial of human progress goes backward, and the hopes 
of humanity are blasted for untold ages. Therefore, the necessity — 



CHESTER D. HUBBARD. 



the stern, unbending necessity — that none but Union men, sound to 
the core, should be found in the approaching Convention. 

" Xor can I conceive that loyalty to the Union is want of fealty 
to Virginia. I would despise myself, and count myself unworthy to 
be numbered among her sons, which has ever been my pride and my 
boast, if I did not feel that every pulsation and instinct of my nature 
beat warmly and undividedly for the welfare of our good old Com- 
monwealth ; and while I would not relinquish a single fraction of her 
rights. I unhesitatingly believe that every interest and every right 
can better be secured and maintained in the Union than out ; and 
that disunion, so far from being a remedy for any evil, is the Pan- 
dora's box of all evils." 

As a member of the Convention, Mr. Hubbard was positive, and 
resolutely determined in his opposition to all the schemes of the se- 
cessionists in that body for taking the State out of the Union. After 
the passage of the ordinance of secession, against which he voted, he 
immediately returned to his constituents in Western Virginia, and 
foreseeing that war was surely to follow the success of the plans of 
the Richmond secessionists, he urged the formation of military com- 
panies for the defense of the loyal people of the State. The compa- 
nies thus formed became the nucleus of the first regiment of three 
months' volunteers, and the advanced guard of loyal men who saved 
Western Virginia from the grasp of secession and rebellion. For his 
active opposition thus manifested to the measures of the secessionists, 
he was expelled from the Convention at Richmond — which expul- 
sion only increased his zeal and devotion to the Union. 

Mr. Hubbard was a member of the Wheeling Convention which 
organized the restored government of A'irginia, and after the forma- 
tion of the new State of West Virginia he was elected to the State 
Senate. Toward the close of the Senatorial term, he was proposed 
as a candidate for Representative in the Congress of the United States, 
and published a letter addressed to the Union voters of his District, 
setting forth his views of public policy, from which we make the 
following brief extract : 

392 



CHESTER D. HUBBARD. 3 

"Having, from the beginning, labored to make West Virginia a 
free State, I rejoice, to-day, that on this question we occupy no 
doubtful position before our sister States; and what I desire for my- 
self, I desire for others. Slavery having been taken out of the ark of 
the Constitution by it- friends, let it go down and perish beneath the 
onswelling wave of freedom. It is bul retributive justice. Slavery 
sought to destroy the life of the nation ; let it pay the forfeit with its 
own lit'.'. The welfare of the whole country, North and South, de- 
mands that the future policy of the National ' rovemment -hall Ik- Free- 
dom and nol Slavery . ' Wages for labor,' sustained by the declaration 
of Holy Scripture-- - The laborer i- worthy of his hire,' is the only doc- 
trine worthy of Republican institutions, the surest guarantee of civil 
liberty, and the only safe basis of a Democratic Republic." 

Mr. Hubbard concludes by adding, in reference to the candidacy lor 
Representative to Congress: " I may say, in conclusion, that T do not 
claim any particular fitness for the position. I have had but little 
experience in legislation, having been trained to the business of active 
life rather than those studies which peculiarly qualify the statesman. 
Yet I love West Virginia; I glory in her high position before the 
country; and whether I shall be selected as your candidate or not, I 
shall labor for her welfare with the same untiring purpose and 
effort." 

Mr. Hubbard was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, and re- 
el, cted to the Fortieth Congress. As a speaker, Mr. Hubbard is clear 
and impressive, presenting his views with force and directness. As a 
sample of his style, we quote the following from a speech delivered 
by him in reply to Mr. Van Trump of < >hio, who had attacked the 
position of West Virginia as one of the States of the Union: 

" I do not propose to enter into a discussion of any constitutional 
question connected with the admission of the State. It is sufficient 
for me to know that West Virginia has been admitted as a State by 
the Congress of the United State-, that branch of the Government 
authorized by the Constitution to admit new States, and I presume the 
members of that Congress under tood their c institutional obligations. 

1 



4 CHESTER D. HUBBARD. 

West Virginia has been acknowledged as a State by the executive 
department of the Government in all its branches. Her name has 
been entered on the roll of States by the Supreme Court of the 
United States — no Justice on that bench, so far as I know, dissenting 
therefrom. She has fulfilled all her constitutional obligations as a 
State since her admission. She furnished her full quota of soldiers 
for the defense of the Union — all volunteers, no drafted men among 
them. Can the gentleman's district say as much % She has paid her 
share of the direct tax, and stands as ready to-day to sustain a preserved 
Union as she did to defend it in its time of danger and peril. 

" I know she is not a State by the consent of rebels or rebel sympa- 
thizers. I know her name is not called in Democratic convention, 
that it is not enrolled on Democratic banners, for she does not muster 
in that camp ; and I am not surprised that the gentleman's ire is ex- 
cited by seeing her Representatives on this floor. But I am surprised 
at the bitterness of invective with which she is assailed, and especially 
that it should come from a Representative from the State of Ohio 
— a State which, of all others, (I speak it in no spirit of boasting), 
has most reason to thank God for the loyalty of West Virginia. For 
four long years of fire and death, AVest Virginia stood between the 
citizens of Ohio and the destroyer. We were her wall of defense ; 
while our fields were laid waste and desolated, theirs were rich with 
fruitful harvests ; while our homes were left without a roof-tree by 
the ruthless hand of war, theirs were the abodes of peace and plenty ; 
and yet a government and recognition among the States of the Union, 
secured by such earnest devotion, and won by such heroic sacrifices, 
must be branded as ' illegitimate,' ' conceived in sin and born in in- 
iquity,' and that by a Representative of the people who have been 
most benefited by that devotion and that sacrifice. O shame, where 
is thy blush?"' 

394 







' : ' 



C7^ ^-c*/-*-^ 



LEWIS W. ROSS. 



l^EWIS W. ROSS was born in Seneca County, New York, 
December 8, 1812. In his boyhood lie removed with his 
father to Illinois. He was educated at Illinois College, and 
adopted the profession of law. In 1840 and 1844 he was elected to 
the State Legislature, and in 1848 he was a Democratic Presidential 
Elector, and in 1860 was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore 
Conventions. In 1861 he was a member of the State Constitutional 
Convention, and in the following year was fleeted a Representative 
from Illinois to the Thirty-eighth Congress. He was re-elected to 
the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. 

Mr. Ross is active and prominent as a member of the National 
Leoislature. As a Democrat he is' outspoken and fearless, while his 

B p ( hes give evidence of a mind actuated by warm impulses and 

stroric convictions. His speech on the "Abolition of Slavery,'' de- 
livered in the House. June 14, 1864, presents a- fairly, perhaps, as any 
other, the attitude of the Democratic party at that time towards the 
prosecution of the war, while at the same time it exemplifies some 
of the more prominent mental characteristics of its author. One or 
two brief extracts will accordingly be presented. At the time of 
delivering this speech, Mr. Ross was favorable to some kind of compro- 
mise, and for arresting further war. 

" We are now passing." he says, " the fiery ordeal of this malignant 
disease. The hectic flush mantles the cheek, the pulse beats quick 
and wiery : but there are still hopes, by a change of doctors and treat- 
ment, and careful nursing, the patient may survive. If I had power 
to reach the mind and touch the heart of the nation. I would beseech 
my countrymen, everywhere. North and South, to stay their hands 
and cea«e this self-destruction before it be forever too late. "Why 
395 



LEWIS W. ROSS. 



persist in destroying the Lest form of government ever devised by 
the wisdom, virtue, and patriotism of man \ Why blot out the world's 
last hope of free, constitutional liberty ? The despots of the Old "World 
have no love for our free institutions and Democratic form of govern- 
ment ; they have watched with a jealous eye our growing greatness 
and power; they are pleased with the manner in which we are exe- 
cuting a job for them which they dare not undertake themselves. If 
we continue to gratify them by procrastinating our civil war until 
our armies are destroyed and our finances collapse, they will be ready 
to grasp the exhausted giant by the throat, and furnish Maximilians 
to rule over us. I would implore the country to pause and reflect. 
This question of self-preservation, of maintaining our liberties and free 
institutions, rises infinitely above all party considerations. Save the 
country, though political parties crumble into atoms. 
These suggestions in favor of an amicable adjustment will not be 
likely to meet the approbation of the Cabinets or their special ad- 
herents at Washington or Richmond, The first would peril the na- 
tion, with its thirty millions of Anglo-Saxons, for the supposed benefit 
of three or four millions of African slaves. They would extirpate 
slavery at whatever cost or sacrifice of blood and treasure. They 
would brush Federal and State constitutions out of their way like 
cobwebs. They would over-run and subjugate the South and exter- 
minate, the people. They would encourage servile insurrection and 
arm the slave against his master. They would make war on and 
starve non-combatants, women and children. They would devastate 
and desolate the land with fire and sword, and make it a howling 
wilderness ; confiscate real and personal property ; place the negro, 
as to civil and political rights, on an equality with the whites ; execute 
or banish the rebel leaders; exclude all others engaged in the re- 
bellion from the rights of citizens; place the free negroes under the 
control of the Secretary of War, to be worked and managed by 
Government overseers ; keep the people in subjection by means of a 
standing army; and rule and govern the country by civil and mili- 
tary officers appointed by the President." 
300 




£-< /frf;j//r^ 



HEXRY D. WASHBURN. 




*ENRY D. WASHBURN was born in Windsor, Vermont, 
March 28, L832. In the same year his father removed to 
Ohio, and Eenry, at the age of twelve, was thrown upon 
his own resources. He was, at thirteen, apprenticed to a tanner, but 
remained in that occupation only one year; and from fourteen to 
twenty he was mostly engaged in attending and teaching school. 
Meanwhile, he commenced the study of law, and at twenty-one he 
entered the New York State and National Law School, from which 
he graduated in the same year. 

Mr. Washburn then commenced practice of law at Newport, 
Vermillion County. Indiana. In the following year I 1854 | he was 
elected Auditor of Vermillion County, and in 1856 he was re-elected 
to the same office, in which he served, while continuing his law 
practice, until 1860, when the latter having become extensive and 
lucrative, he relinquished the Auditorship, and devoted himself ex- 
clusively to his profession. 

On the breaking out of hostilities in L861, Mr. Washburn was 
among the first in his section of the State to raise a company for 
service in the army. Of this company he was unanimously elected 
captain, and was attached to the Eighteenth Regiment of Indiana 
Volunteers. This regiment was, for gallantry and long and faithful 
service, second to no other of the many brave regiments of Indiana. 
August IT. 1861, the regiment left Indianapolis for St. Louis, to join in 
the Western campaign under General Fremont. Before its departure, 
however, Captain Washburn was promoted as its Lieutenant-Colonel. 
This regiment accompanied Fremont in his march to Springfield, 
307 



2 HENRY D. WASHBURN. 

and General Hunter on his return march to Otterville. Afterwards 
it participated with Pope's army in the movement which resulted in 
the surprise and capture of a rebel camp at Milford, December 18, 
1861. 

In March following, the regiment took part in the battle of Pea 
Ridge, a hotly contested fight, in which it. performed deeds of great 
valor, re-capturing several cannon which had been taken by the 
enemy, and saving an entire brigade from capture. For its gallantry 
the regiment received, on the battle-field, the high commendations of 
the general commanding. Shortly after this, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Washburn was promoted to the Colonelcy of the Eighteenth Regi- 
ment, and was presented, by the privates of his regiment, a beautiful 
sword and silver scabbard. In December, 1864, he was breveted a 
Brigadier-General for gallant and meritorious conduct ; and in July 
following, was breveted Major-General. 

During the war he was under command of the following officers, 
and participated in the battles fought by them: Gen. Fremont's 
hundred days campaign ; Gen. Pope's Black Water campaign in 
Missouri ; Gen. Curtis in Southwest Missouri and Arkansas, 
and his famous march from Pea Ridge to the Mississippi River; 
Gen. Davidson, S. E. Missouri ; Gen. Grant's campaign in the 
rear of Vicksburg, and the siege of the same ; Gen. Banks' Teche 
River and Texas Coast Expedition. He also served under Gen. 
Butler at Deep Bottom, Va., and under Gen. Sheridan, in the 
Shenandoah Valley. 

In January, 1865, General Washburn was ordered to Savannah, 
and was assigned to the command of the Southern District ot 
< reorgia, consisting of forty-five counties. He remained in command 
until July 26, 1S65, when the war being closed he was mustered out 
of the service one month afterwards. The 18th Regiment, with which 
he entered the service, and which he subsequently commanded, was 
also mustered out, and arriving at Indianapolis, was welcomed home 
by speeches from General Washburn, Governor Morton, and others. 
On the discharge of the regiment, General Washburn was the 

398 



HENRY I). WASHBURN. 3 

only survivor of its original officers. As a military officer, General 
Washburn was among the best and most efficient that entered the 
service from Indiana. Among the first to enter the service of his 
country to put down armed treason, he was among the last to leave 
the service; he remained in it until the last rebel laid down his gun, 
and the flag of the Republic floated in triumph over all the States of 
the Union. The soldiers he so honorably commanded in so many 
battles, were among the bravest in the service, and will always che- 
rish his name as a kind, considerate, ami gallant officer. 

In 1SI35, while in the field, General Washburn was nominated by 
the Republicans of the Seventh Di>trirt as their candidate for Con- 
gress in opposition to Hon. D. W. Voorhees. After an exciting can- 
vass, Mr. Yoorhees was declared elected. General Washburn, how- 
ever, contested the election, and having proven that he was defeated 
by fradulent votes, he was admitted to a seat in the Thirty-ninth Con- 
gress. He was appointed on the Committee on Claims, of which he 
made a most valuable member during the remainder of his term. 

As a member of this Committee he took an active part in opposi- 
tion to what was known as the " Iron Clad Bill," which had already 
passed the Senate. This bill appropriated several millions of dollars 
to the projectors and builders of iron-clad vessels used in the navy 
during the late war. When the Special Committee of Five to exam- 
ine into the condition of Southern military railroads was raised, he 
was appointed one of its members, and as such traversed many of 
the Southern States in search of facts and evidence. Before the close 
of the session he prepared and introduced a most elaborate and thor- 
oughly digested bill for the reconstruction of the Southern States on 
a sound loyal basis, giving the loyal people of these States the 
power to form State governments, but subjecting all their legislation 
to the approval of Congress. He took a deep interest in all legis- 
lation affecting the interests of soldiers of the late war. 

In the spring of 18G6, General Washburn was re-nominated by the 
Republicans of his District for the Fortieth Congress, and was elected 
by a majority of 513 votes. In this Congress he was continued 



4 HENRY D. WASHBURN. 

on the Committee on Military Kailroads, and, in addition, placed on 
the Committee on Military Affairs and the Committee on Pensions 
for the Soldiers of the War of 1812. Early in the session, as a mem- 
ber of the Pension Committee, he introduced " a bill granting pen- 
sions from date of discharge," also, " a bill providing for paying pen- 
sions in coin." March 19, 1S67, he introduced a resolution declaring 
that in any future system of funding our national securities, the right 
to tax for municipal and State purposes should be directly granted. 
In July of the same year he moved the appointment of a special 
committee on bounties. The committee was raised, and he was made 
its chairman. Since then he has made the subject of bounties a spe- 
cialty, and has introduced many reforms in the payment of the same. 
In March, as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Military Affairs, 
he reported to said committee, and afterwards to the House, a general 
bounty bill, granting to all soldiers eight and one-third dollars per 
month for every month served, deducting all bounties previously 
paid. As a member of the Committee on Pensions he assisted in fram- 
ing, and was instrumental in securing the passage through the House 
of a bill granting bounties to the soldiers of the war of 1S12. 

Besides these legislative labors, General "Washburn has made several 
speeches in Congress which have given him reputation as a skillful 
debater. He is a popular orator on the stump, and has participated 
in the political campaign of several States with much acceptance and 
success. Of a recent speech of his at Keene, K H, a Boston paper said : 
" General Washburn held the undivided attention of the crowded 
assembly for nearly three hours, in a speech full of interesting matter, 
sound reasoning, and thrilling elocpience. It was one of the best 
specimens of Western oratory, and universally pronounced to be the 
most powerful speech which has been made in Keene during the 
present political campaign. Gentlemanly in his address and language, 
he wields a weapon keen as a Damascus blade. He was well known 
by the Boys in Blue as a brave and efficient commander on the field of 
battle dm-ing the rebellion, and he is equally efficient in the forum as 

in the field." 

400 



THOMAS W. FERRY. 



I( IIKiA X is eminent among her sister States for the 
enterprise and intelligence of her people. Her enviable 
Sr s «-«r' position is partly due to the energetic character of the 
emigrants from !Xo\v England who formed many of the early settle- 
ments. 

In 1822 Rev. "William M. Ferry emigrated from Massachusetts to 
Michigan, and established the Mackinaw Mission, which was very suc- 
cessful under his management, until it was terminated by the removal 
of the Indians further west. 

Thomas "\V. Ferry , son of the pioneer missionary, was born at 
Mackinaw, June 1st, 1827. 

The father, on the termination of his mission at Mackinaw, made 
an extended tour of observation to determine where he should make 
his future home. He visited Chicago, then only a military outpost, 
and many other places, and finally determined to locate at Grand 
Haven, Michigan. He established his family in the first frame-house 
built in that now large and prosperous city. 

Possessed of great physical power, energy of mind, and strength ot 
will, the pioneer preacher turned his attention to developing the ma- 
terial resources of the region. He immediately began operations in 
the lumber business, which before his death reached great propor- 
tions. "With the aid of his four sons, he erected a number of mills, 
built vessels for transportation, and made Grand Haven an important 
source of the lumber trade for Chicago and vicinity. 

A business partnership with a father so energetic, successful, and 
thorough, had a tendency to develop noble traits of character in his 
sons. 



2 THOMAS W. FERRY. 

When the war broke out two of them entered the army, one of 
whom, Major N. H. Ferry of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, fell at Get- 
tysburg shot through the head while bravely leading his command. 

Thomas W. Ferry's first political associations were with the Whigs, 
by whom he was elected to the Legislature of Michigan in 1S57. 

After the disintegration of the Whig party he became a Republi- 
can, and as such was elected to the State Senate in 1S57, serving two 
fears. He soon became an active and influential member of the Re- 
publican party. For a period of eight years he served on the Re- 
publican State Central Committee of Michigan. In 1860 he was a 
member and one of the Vice-Presidents of the National Convention 
which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency. 

In 1SG4 he was elected a Representative from Michigan to the 
Thirty-Ninth Congress. In this Congress he was appointed upon 
three Committees: Post Offices and Post Roads, Militia, and the 
War Debts of the Loyal States. During the Thirty-Ninth Congress 
he was successful in originating and securing the passage of impor- 
tant measures for developing the resources and promoting the com- 
merce of his State. 

Mr. Ferry was re-elected to Congress for his second term by a ma- 
jority of more than seven thousand votes. In the Fortieth Congress 
Mr. Ferry was re-appointed to the Post-Office Committee, and was 
placed on the important committee of Naval Affairs. 

A Washington correspondent says: "Mr. Ferry is the hardest 
worker in the Post-Office Committee. The Department places him 
next to Colfax in connection with our mail system." 

He has done a great deal to increase mail facilities for the region 
which he represents. When he entered Congress, in 1864, there was 
only a weekly mail from Grand Haven to Traverse City. Now there 
is a daily lake-shore mail, a daily mail by steamer, and a tri-weekly 
interior mail from Grand Rapids via Newaygo to Traverse City ; a 
daily mail to Milwaukee and Chicago, and tri-weekly to St. Joseph. 

Mr. Ferry was chairman of a sxib-committee to visit New York to 
examine the old Post-Office, and report upon the necessity of a new 

402 



THOMAS W. FERRY. 3 

one. Speaking of the result of this investigation as laid before the 
House by Mr. Ferry, the New York Herald said : " The report is an 
interesting and instructive document. Mr. Ferry take- a broad and 
statesmanlike view of the wonderful progress and future grandeur of 
this metropolis, and urges the erection of an edifice which in point of 
architecture and completeness will do honor to the Republic and to 
her greatest city." 

Mr. Ferry was influential in defeating the passage of a bill estab- 
lishing low rate- of tariff on lumber coming from Canada. In a 
speech on this measure, Mr. Ferry said: "Are we under any obli- 
gation to pursue so generous a policy as is proposed by the committee 
toward Canada? What has she done to merit this liberal treatment '. 
What has been the experience of the past years of our sanguinary 
war; Did she lend the aid of her sympathy and good will, must 
cheaply given, which would have been gladly received 1 No, sir ; she 
preferred to offer her soil as an asylum for plotters, conspirators, and 
traitors against the life of this Government. The treatment we had 
given Canada deserved her encouragement in the hour of our peril. 
Her press and voices should have been raised to conciliate England, 
to remind her that in the veins of this great people, battling for life 
and liberty, there ran the blood of her own sons, and that her hand 
should be stayed against a contest so righteous as putting down a re- 
bellion founded on human slavery. We fought alone, under the 
sneers and jeers of both England and Canada, and crowned our victory 
with universal liberty, and vindicated the rights of humanity." 

When the tax-bill was under consideration Mr. Ferry made a suc- 
cessful argument in favor of exempting breadstuffs and lumber from 
the tax. " It harmonizes," said he, " with the theory of that legislation 
which generously grants a free homestead to the poor settler who, for 
want of means, would otherwise roam homeless and a wanderer 
throughout the land. Freeing lumber from taxation lessens its cost 
and cheapens the shelter of the homestead. Releasing breadstuffs 
from taxation reduces the cost of the primal food of the primal pover- 
ty-stricken settler. With a free home, a free shelter, and free food, 



4 THOMAS W. FERRY. 

the staple and necessary conditions of livelihood are protected, and 
the poorer classes of the community befriended by a considerate Gov- 
ernment. With such protection and such a start in life, failure to rise 
above the misfortunes which hover around the more dependent classes 
of citizenship must be chargeable to personal inefficiency rather than to 
legislative authority." 

Mr. Ferry is ready and sometimes even elocpient in speech. He 
never consumes time with displays of prepared oratory, but in extem- 
porary speeches makes his point, and generally produces the desired 
effect. 

Ever active in the service of his constituents, by voice and vote and 
private labor, he enjoys a high degree of popularity among them. 
They have lately given new evidence of their appreciation of their 
Representative by re-nominating and electing him to the Forty-first 
Congress by a large majority. 

404 







" 




THOMAS A. JEXCKKs. 



FHOMAS A. JEXCKES was born in Providence, Rhode 




Island, in L818. Having graduated at Brown University 
in 1S3*, he stu'lii'd law, and by his ability and industry 
soon rose to eminence in his profession. His practice was not merely 
of a local character, but the nature of the litigations of which he had 
charge, which were m istly in the courts of the United States, carried 
him frequently into other States and to Washington. 

He first entered into public life in 1840, as Clerk of the Ehode 
Island House of Representatives, and held the office five years. 
During the Dorr Rebellion, he was Private Secretary to Governor 
King. From 1S45 to 1S55, he served as Adjutant-General of the 
State Militia. From 1S54 to 1S59, he was in the State Legislature — 
four years in the House, and one year in the Senate. 

In 1S63, he was elected a Representative from Rhode Island to the 
Thirty-eighth Congress. lie was appointed Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Patents, and of the Special Committee on the Bankrupt 
Law. He was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, in which he 
was continued at the head of the Committee on Patents, and was 
appointed Chairman of a Select Committee on the Civil Service. 

His services in Congress have been of great value, and are such as 

entitled him to high rank among the legislators of the country. 

Among these services may be mentioned first bis agency in the 

passage of the bill to establish a uniform system of Bankruptcy 

throughout the United States. He was the author and principal 

advocate of this bill, which is considered as by far the best act of 

the kind ever passed. In his speech upon this bill, June 1, 1S64, we 

have the following beautiful introduction : 

405 






2 THOMAS A. JENCKES. 

" Mr. Speaker : I take pleasure in introducing into this House a 
subject for its action which is entirely unconnected with political or 
partisan questions. It relates solely and entirely to the business and 
men of business of the nation. Its consideration at the present time 
is demanded by every active business interest. It is a siibject which 
we can discuss without acrimony, and differ upon without anger. If 
a division is bad upon it, the lines will not be those of party. It is 
a green spot amid the arid wastes of party strife, and one to which 
the fiery scourge of civil war has not yet extended. It presents 
unusual claims upon us at the present time, when all the business 
interests of the country are in a state of constant agitation. The 
life of the nation is in the prosperity and energy of its active men. 
While they are encouraged, and their rights and interests protected 
by just legislation, their efforts will continue, and the nation will 
endure." 

Mr. Jenckes then proceeds to specify the general purpose of the bill : 
" What is now proposed is the enactment of a law with a different 
purpose from the ephemeral laws which have preceded it, and which 
shall form the basis of a permanent and uniform system of legisla- 
tion and jurisprudence on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the 
country. We desire that henceforth there shall be no longer upon 
this subject one law in Maine, and another law in Wisconsin, a third 
in California, and a fourth in Kentucky, and so on throughout all 
the States; but one law for all ; which the citizens of the United 
States, inhabiting each and all the States, may acknowledge, live un- 
der, and enjo3 r , and feel it to be as stable as the Constitution upon 
which it stands." 

Mr. Jenckes states the points aimed to be secured by the bill to~be, 
first, the discharge of the honest debtor upon the surrender of his 
property; and, second, the protection of the creditor against the 
fraudulent practices and reckless conduct of his debtor. 

Further on, he thus depicts the former condition of an honest 
bankrupt : " If he possesses integrity and ability, those very quali- 
ties are a disadvantage in any attempt to procure a discharge. The 

406 






THOMAS A. .IENCKES. 3 

creditor says to him, ' Some day you will recover yourself, or your 

friends will set you up in business, and then I can secure my debt.' 
The qualifications for success are thus made to increase the penalties 
and Bufferings of misfortune. * * * 

"The laws formerly in force by which the creditor could keep 
his debtor in prison for an indefinite period, without relief, have 
been abolished in all Christian countries. But there may be a pun- 
ishment of death without the knife, and an imprisonment without 
the holts and. burs of the jail. When in this country one enters the 
gates of hopeless insolvency, all his life must be passed within the 
imprisonment, of mercantile dishonor, the pain of uncanceled obli- 
gations, the surveillance of creditors, and there is no release except 
by death. Who enters here may hereafter write over such habita- 
tion as he may have during the remnant of his life, the motto that 
the poet found inscribed over the gates of hell : 

' Who enters here abandons hope.' 
To him thenceforth — 

' Hope never comes, that comes to all.' 

"Whatever may be his talents, whatever his skill the result of long 
business experience, whatever his opportunity, whatever his integrity 
and character, so long as creditors stand unwilling to release him, 
his life is one continuous thralldom, without the power of relief by 
his own exertions, and beyond the aid of his friends. Why should 
this be, and for what good? To what end '. Do the public gain by 
it ? Do the creditors ? No one can answer in the affirmative." 

The speech of Mr. Jenckes before the House, Jan. 17, 1S68, in 
favor of " Supplementary Reconstruction," though brief, was one of 
the very best on that side of this great question. By the precedent 
of President Tyler's administration bearing upon the difficulties in 
Rhode Island in 1S12, in connection with the " Charter government," 
and the " People's government," as well as by the decision of the 
Supreme Court in that case, Mr. Jenckes clearly demonstrated that 
the authority and power to decide what is, and what is not, the con- 
stitutional government of a State, is with Congress, in distinction 



i THOMAS A. JEXCKES. 

from either of the other departments of the General Government. 
He then presented the whole existing case and condition of affairs as 
follows : 

" Now, in the light of this precedent, what is the true ground for 
the action now proposed? We all agree with the opinion of the 
present President, in the spring of 1865, when he issued his procla- 
mation of the reorganization of the State of North Carolina, that there 
was no civil government there ; that all civil government there had been 
utterly destroyed by the rebellion. During the period immediately 
preceding the meeting of the last Congress, he undertook to do what 
his predecessor, Mr. Tyler, under similar circumstances, said he had 
no power to do — to raise and construct State governments. It is true, 
he said all the time, that the action of the people of these States 
and the executive department in that region, would be subject to 
the approval and ratification of Congress when it assembled. 

" Now, when Congress did assemble, the acts of the President and 
those under his authority were not satisfactory to that tribunal. It 
was a long time before the Thirty-ninth Congress could obtain official 
information of what had been done. Congress met on the first Monday 
in December, and the message of the President, transmitting the 
information to Congress, was not received until the month of March 
following. 

" In the mean time, evidence of hostility to the Government of tin' 
United States, which was unmistakable in its character, had been 
received from every quarter of the South. The Executive did not con- 
ceal his disappointment at the coolness with which his efforts at 
reconstruction had been received by the people. Congress undertook 
to settle the difficulty by proposing an amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States, establishing a due proportion between the repre- 
sentation and the voting constituency. Instead of the acceptance of 
that amendment either by these pretended State governments or by 
the Executive, it was opposed by the latter, and rejected by the S:ate.^ 
most interested in it. * * * 

" What was to be done '. Was Congress to allow a new rebellion to 
403 



THOMAS A. JENCKE3 5 

be instigated, to be fostered into life by the Executive ? or were they 
to undertake other means for keeping peace throughout the nation ? 
They decided that it was their duty to undertake other means, and 
those means are these Reconstruction Acts." 

But perhaps the most important Congressional service yet rendered 
by Mr. Jenckes, remains to be sketched. We refer to a bill of which 
he is the author, and which he lately introduced in the House, en- 
titled " a bill to regulate the civil service of the United States, and 
to promote the efficiency thereof." 

The first section of this bill will sufficiently explain its purpose and 
drift. It provides, " That hereafter all appointments of civil officers 
in the several departments of the service of the United States, except 
postmasters and such officers as are by law required to be appointed 
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
shall be made from those persons who shall have been found best 
qualified for the performance of the duties of the offices to which 
such appointments are to be made, in an open and competitive examina- 
tion, to be conducted as herein prescribed." 

An admirable and very able speech from Mr. Jenckes, accompanied 
the presentation of this important measure, of which we have space 
for merely the outlines. 

He began by submitting that what the bill proposes was substanti- 
ally the same principle as has always been applied to the Military 
and Naval service, illustrating the statement by reference to Military 
and Naval schools, and the examinations there required. Then, after 
glancing at certain reasons why the same principle has not been 
applied to the Civil service, he expatiates upon the necessity of a 
thorough reformation in the mode of appointment to office, and the 
duties of Heads of Departments and Members of Congress with 
regard to appointments to office. He also dwells upon the tendency 
of the present system of appointments toward centralization; and in 
stating the conclusion of the Committee upon this point, he makes 
the following startling announcement : 

" It is safe to assert that the number of offices may be diminished 



6 THOMAS A. JENCKE8. 

one-third, and the efficiency of the whole force of the civil service 
increased one-half, with a corresponding reduction of salaries for 
discontinued offices, if a healthy system of appointment and discipline 
be established for its government." 

Mr. Jenckes then comes to the remedy— the measure he is advo- 
cating—and the mode of applying it. For the latter he proposes, 
first, open admission to these offices to all ; in other words, a free 
competition ; at the same time, suggesting that the requirement of a 
proper examination into qualifications, and scrutiny into character, 
will greatly diminish the number of applicants. He proposes, second, 
that the most worthy candidates receive appointments ; and he ex- 
plains, third, how the best attainable talent can be secured. 

In the remainder of this important speech, Mr. Jenckes descants 
upon the grand effect of the proposed system, and incidental 
topics, and concludes with the following summary : 

" Thus, while this proposed system will stimulate education and 
bring the best attainable talent into the public service, it will place 
that service above all consideration of locabty, favoritism, patronage, 
or party, and. will give it permanence and the character of nation- 
ality as distinct from its present qualities of insecurity and of cen- 
tralized power. A career will be opened to all who wish to serve 
the Eepublic ; and although its range is limited, yet success in it 
will be an admitted qualification for that higher and more laborious 
and uncertain competition before the people, if any one should be 
tempted to enter upon it. The nation will be better served ; the 
Government will be more stable and better administered ; property 
will be more secure ; personal rights more sacred ; and the Kepublic 
more respected and powerful. The great experiment of self-govern- 
ment, which our fathers initiated, will have another of its alien 
elements of discord removed from it, and in its administration, in 
peace as well as in war, will have become a grand success." 

410 




ft l& /£?ff&o£. 



<^c 



WILLIAM II. ROBERTSON. 




flgrlLLIAM U. ROBERTSON was born in the town of Bed- 
ford, Westchester County, New York, October 10, L863. 
-3>aJjC The summers of his boyhood, with few exceptions, were 
spent upon his father's farm. His education was obtained in the 
common school and at Union A.cademy, then a flourishing literary 
institution in northern Westchester. After leaving the academy, he 
taught a district school for two years. lie subsequently studied law, 
and in September, 1S4T. was admitted to practice in all the courts 
of his native State. 

In 1S4S, he was elected Member of Assembly on the White ticket. 
and served two terms. He gave a vigorous support to the bill, which 
became a law, fur the establishment of Free Schools throughout the 
State. His motto was "Education for all. Liberty for all.*' 

In 1S53, he was elected Senator on the Whig ticket, although the 
district gave the Democratic State ticket at that election about three 
thousand majority. As Chairman of the Committee on Literature, 
he reported and carried through a bill separating the office of State 
Superintendent of Common Schools from that of Secretary of State, 
and establishing a distinct and independent bureau for the educational 
interests of the State. He also introduced and carried through a bill 
for the protection of mechanics and laborers in the erection of build- 
ings in his county, which has never been repealed. Every bill intro- 
duced by him during his legislative career, passed that branch of the 
Legislature of which, at the time, he was a member. During the 
period of his service in the House and Senate, there were passed at 
least fifty local bills affecting the section he represented. 



2 WILLIAM H. ROBERT SOX. 

At that time Know-Xothingism was at its flood. Mr. Robertson 
introduced in the Senate a series of concurrent resolutions, which 
were adopted by the Legislature of 1S55, which demanded the repeal 
of the Fugitive Slave Act and the enactment of a law declaring that 
slavery shall not exist except where it is established by the local laws 
of the State ; declared that Xew York would never consent to the 
admission into the Union of any State that may be formed out of the 
Territory of Kansas and Nebraska, unless its constitution shall pro- 
hibit the existence of slavery within its limits ; and that every attempt 
to control, by the dictation of secret political societies, or by the im- 
position of oaths or kindred obligations, the political action of any 
citizen, is at war with the true theory of our Government, destructive 
of personal independence, hostile to the rights of the great body of 
the people, and detrimental to the public welfare. 

In 1S55, he was elected County-Judge of "Westchester County, on 
the Republican ticket, was re-elected in 1859, and again in 1863, 
although the County was at each of these elections largely Demo- 
cratic. In 1S60, he was a Presidential Elector, and voted in the 
Electoral College for Lincoln and Hamlin. He was Chairman of the 
Senate Committee appointed by Governor Morgan, in 1862, to raise 
volunteers in the Seventh Senate District of Xew York, which sent 
many soldiers to the front, and especially the Sixth Xew York 
Heavy Artillery. In 186-1, he was a delegate to the Baltimore Con- 
vention, and favored the nomination of Lincoln and Johnson. 

In 1S66, he was elected on the Republican ticket a Representative 
to the Fortieth Congress, from the Tenth Congressional District of 
Xew York, by a majority exceeding two thousand. He was appointed 
a member of the Committees on Commerce and Revolutionary 
Claims.' He favored the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and 
voted uniformly against his vetoes. Mr. Robertson declined a re-nom- 
ination for Representative, in order that he might devote himself 

exclusively to his profession. 

412 




/Pj fi&^fa?^ 



ROBERT T. TAX HOES'. 




POKE than two hundred years ago the ancestors of Robert T. 
Van Horn emigrated from Holland to America, and set- 
flreP tied in New Jersey, near New York. His greal -rand- 
father, Henry Van Horn, was a captain in the " Pennsylvania Line" 
of the Revolutionary war, and died in the service. His son Isaiah, 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a member of his com- 
pany, and served until the close of the war. The father of Robert T. 
Van Horn enlisted as a soldier in the war of 1812, and is still living, 
at an age of more than four-score years. His mother, Elizabeth 
Thompson, was born in the parish of Bannaher, County of London- 
derry, Ireland, and came to this country while a girl— her father, 
Robert Thompson, settling in the wilderness of Western Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Robert T. Van Horn was born in East Mahoning, Indiana County, 
Pennsylvania, May 19, 1821. He was early put to work on his father's 
farm, collecting stones from the meadows, picking brush, raking 
hay, going to mill, and performing such other labors as small boys 
are able to do. He generally attended school three months in the 
year, studying reading, writing, and arithmetic, but not advancing to 
crrammar, as this branch had not then been introduced into the schools 
of that region. 

"When fifteen years of age, he was apprenticed to learn the printing 
business in the office of the Indiana (Pa.) Register, where he remained 
four years. From 1843 to 1855, he worked as a journeyman printer, 
in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana, meanwhile varying 
his occupation by boating on the Erie Canal a portion of one season, 

413 



2 EOBERT T. VAN HORN. 

teaching school in winter, publishing and editing newspapers occa- 
sionally, and steamboating two seasons on the Ohio, Mississippi, 
Wabash, and other Western rivers. In addition to all the other per- 
suits of these twelve years, he studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar, but practiced only a very short time. He was married in 1848, 
at Pomeroy, Ohio. 

In 1S55, he located at Kansas City, Missouri, then a small village, 
where he founded the Journal of Commerce, now the leading daily 
paper of that part of Missouri. Here he was elected Alderman, and 
was afterwards Postmaster. In 1S60, he supported Stephen A. 
Douglas for the Presidency. Soon after the Presidential election, 
the question of secession was forced upon the people of Missouri, and 
in the canvass for members of the Convention, in February, he took a 
very active part on the Union side. 

In April, 1S61, he was selected by the Union men of Kansas City, 
as their candidate for Mayor, and after the most exciting municipal 
election ever known in the place, was elected to the office. This was 
the only municipal election that year in Missouri in which the Union 
issue was openly and fairly made. 

In May, 1861, Claiborne F. Jackson, Governor of Missouri, having 
declared for secession, and there being no one to commission military 
officers, Mr. Van Horn applied to Gen. jSTathaniel Lyon, command- 
ing at the St. Louis Arsenal, and obtained authority from him to 
raise three hundred men. The men raised under this authority were 
the first troops mustered into the United States service in Missouri, 
outside of St. Louis. 

On the 18th of July, 1861, Major Yan Horn fought an engage- 
ment with a rebel force under Col. Duncan, near Harrisonville, Mo., 
and defeated him. This was three days before the battle of Bull 
Pun, and was the first fight in Western Missouri. 

In September, 1861, he commanded a force under Col. Mulligan, 
at Lexington, Missouri, where, on the last day of the siege, he was 
severely wounded. After the exchange of prisoners — Mulligan's 
command for the Camp Jackson prisoners— he was appointed Lieu- 



ROBERT T. YAK HORN. 3 

tenant-Colonel of the Twenty-fifth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and 
was ordered to Tennessee. Colonel Van Horn commanded his 
regiment at Shiloh, where he had a horse killed under him on the 
first day of the battle. In the advance upon Corinth, he, for a short 
time, commanded a brigade. Having remained at Corinth after its 
evacuation till September 1, he was ordered to Southeast Missouri 
and Arkansas, under Gen. Davidson, in his movement on Little Kock. 
The consolidation of Colonel Van Horn's regiment, near the close of 
its three years' service, with the First Engineers, terminated his ac- 
tive military service. 

"While with his regiment in Mississippi, Colonel Van Horn was 
elected to the Missouri Senate. He -was one of the members of that 
body who early organized the opposition to the administration of 
Governor Gamble, a movement which led to the organization of the 
Eadical party of Missouri. 

At the close of his service in the Senate, Mr. Van Horn was again, 
without opposition, elected Mayor of Kansas City, and as such was 
charged with the organization of the volunteer militia, and the con- 
struction of defensive works around the city, before its occupation by 
General Curtis, in his movement against Sterling Price's last invasion 
of Missouri. 

In 1861, Mr. Van Horn was a delegate to the Baltimore Conven- 
tion, which nominated Mr. Lincoln for re-election to the Presidency. 
He was, the same year, elected a Representative from the Sixth Dis- 
trict of Missouri to the Thirty-ninth Congress, and has since been 

twice re-elected. 

415 



X12 



^ 



j, 1^1 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 785 595 1 






